2010 started in the shade of the dramatic UN Climate Conference in Copenhagen. The failure to come to a global climate change agreement there, and the demonstrated lack of trust, particularly between developed and developing countries, has had a major impact on the global climate change policy development. The heated discussions about errors in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report also demonstrated a deterioration of momentum to seriously address climate change at the global level. However, 2010 did not just become ‘the year after’ Copenhagen. Decisions taken at the end of 2010 at the next annual UN Climate Conference/ Conference of Parties 16 (COP 16) in Cancún, underpin significant progress in addressing the challenges of climate change. Although the outcome of COP 16 is still not sufficient to mitigate increases in climate-related disasters and the suffering of millions of people in the years and decades to come, we believe that a solid step in the process towards a legally binding agreement was made. An adaptation framework was established as well as a Green Climate Fund. 2010 has thus demonstrated that not all is lost and there is still hope for reaching a global climate change agreement through the UN process.

Download the Annual report 2010 here.
Download a 4-page summary here.