COP16, UN Climate Talks in Cancun Conclude

The 16th meeting of the Conference of Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the 6th Conference of Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (jointly "COP16"), in Cancun, Mexico, concluded on December 11th.

The negotiations in Cancun came almost a year after the summit in Copenhagen where high level negotiations fell short of producing a binding post-2012 pact on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and providing aid to developing countries.

With no expectation of a binding global treaty resulting from the conference, the Cancun summit concluded with the release of the Cancun Agreement, a United Nations backed deal that commits countries to increase their effort to battle climate change and preserve key principles of the Kyoto protocol. The Cancun Agreement, which endorses the view that climate change is "one of the greatest challenges of our time" which requires long-term and cooperative action in order to prevent devastating global impacts,