“In 2011, at the 17th Conference of Parties (COP 17) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change(UNFCCC) in Durban, South Africa, the international community agreed to negotiate a new climate agreement, to enter into force in 2020. Negotiations for this new agreement are taking place under the Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action(ADP), and are to be finalised in 2015. The structure and the content of the “2015 agreement” is still open, but mitigation will play an essential role. Current emission reduction pledges for 2020 under the Copenhagen Accord are not sufficient to be in line with the 2°C limit, let alone the 1.5°C limit which could prevent drastic climate change impacts, especially affecting Least Developed Countries (LDCs). It is therefore the aim of the LDC Group to assure a significantly higher level of global ambition for the new agreement. In its submission to the ADP, Nepal on behalf of the LDCs “reaffirms its demand that the commitments to be made under the ADP result in an emission pathway that can limit warming below 1.5°C, and in particular result in the closing of the emissions gap by 2020”. This brief analyses some points for consideration by the LDC Group in their effort to raise global ambition for climate mitigation.”
