Representatives from 193 nations, the United Nations and several thousand non-governmental organizations (NGOs) descended on Copenhagen from Dec. 8-18, 2009, to try to agree on a coordinated international strategy to limit global climate change and help the most vulnerable nations adapt to its now inevitable impacts. I attended the second week of the conference—known as COP151— as a Law Journal columnist and, informally, on behalf of the New York City Bar. (For my daily reports on the conference proceedings, see http://www.clm.com/publication.cfm/ID/262.)
Having attended the 1992 Rio Conference when the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was first adopted, I was eager to see whether, after 17 more years of climate science, international negotiations, pressure from NGOs at home and abroad, and a more enlightened U.S. administration, the world was ready for effective long-term action on climate change. The answer at Copenhagen was: not yet, but almost.
