The 15th Conference of Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC took place in Copenhagen, Denmark, from 7 to 18 December 2009. The purpose was to negotiate an international climate change policy agreement for 2013 onwards, since the Kyoto Protocol expires at the end of 2012.

After difficult negotiations, the ‘Copenhagen Accord’ was signed on the last day of the conference. It unfortunately provides little clarity for market mechanisms such as the Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM) post-2012, but it does set a commitment by developed countries to provide new and additional financing of 100 billion dollars a year by 2020 to support climate change mitigation and adaptation in developing countries. The Copenhagen Green Climate Fund will be established to support projects, programmes, policies and other activities in developing countries, while a Technology Mechanism will be established to accelerate technology development and transfer. Analysis of the Copenhagen Accord by the UNDP is available here: www.undpcc.org/content/negotiations-en.aspx.

Although there is still uncertainty for the CDM post-2012, there are still various buyers interested in purchasing certified emission reductions (CERs) in the longer term. The Asian Development Fund (ADB), for example, has a Future Carbon Fund that buys post-2012 CERs from CDM projects in ADB member countries. The value of the CERs will be lower, however, than those generated up to 2012.