United Nations climate change conference

Our global climate change team in Poznan

A team of lawyers from Norton Rose LLP attended the international climate change negotiations held in Poznan, Poland from 1-12 December 2008, on client instructions. These negotiations included the 14th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on climate change (COP 14) and the 4th Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP 4).

Our brief was to attend negotiating sessions of particular interest to those engaged in the carbon market and produce daily reports summarising the outcomes of these sessions. The Norton Rose Team attended plenary sessions of the COP, CMP, SBI, SBSTA, AWG-KP and AWG-LCA, attended contact group meetings on key agenda items, attended formal and informal meetings, and interfaced directly with climate negotiators.

We held two pre-Poznan briefing sessions in webinar format, covering:

• the process of the negotiations; and
• the substance of the negotiations.

We also produced a final detailed analysis of the outcomes and what these mean for Copenhagen.

This summary report highlights a number of key decisions agreed to by Parties in Poznan in areas of key interest to our clients. The report assumes a high level of knowledge with respect to the international legal climate change framework (primarily the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol) and familiarity with the legal and political context of the Poznan negotiations.

We will be repeating the same process in Copenhagen on behalf of clients and we would be happy to discuss how we could assist you there.