Climate change mitigation negotiations, with an emphasis on options for developing countries

Climate change is one of the greatest threats to our planet and its people. Reducing emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) is called mitigation. Responding to the impacts of climate change is called adaptation. A certain amount of adaptation will be necessary, no matter what we do. But, there will come a point where it will not be possible to adapt our way out of the problem. Mitigation has been at the heart of the climate negotiations from the outset. As the next round of negotiations focuses on what developing countries might do on mitigation, the topic remains highly relevant. The remainder of this introduction briefly sketches the history of the climate negotiations, ending with the most recent agreements in Bali. The paper then turns to the scientific basis of the work on mitigation. Section 3 introduces background concepts for proposals on mitigation, leading into the next section, which identifies not only different schools of thought but a number of specific proposals as well. The “hot” topic of how mitigation actions can be made ‘measurable, reportable and verifiable’ (MRV) is examined in section 5, before concluding with some questions for discussion. Information on the terminology used in this paper can be obtained from the glossary in Annex 4