COP15 Copenhagen

COP15 was the 15th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), held in Copenhagen, Denmark from 7–18 December 2009. It was simultaneously the 5th Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP5). Expectations were unusually high: parties had agreed under the 2007 Bali Road Map to conclude a new global climate agreement at Copenhagen to succeed or extend the Kyoto Protocol's first commitment period (ending 2012).

The summit drew roughly 115 heads of state and government, making it one of the largest gatherings of world leaders to that point. Negotiations were marked by sharp divisions between developed and developing countries over emissions targets, finance, transparency of mitigation actions, and the legal form of any outcome. A small group of leaders — including those of the United States, China, India, Brazil, and South Africa — negotiated a political compromise in the final hours known as the Copenhagen Accord.

Key elements of the Accord included:

• Recognition of the goal of limiting global temperature rise to below 2°C above pre-industrial levels.
• A pledge by developed countries to mobilize USD 100 billion per year by 2020 in climate finance for developing countries.
• Establishment of what later became the Green Climate Fund.
• A "pledge and review" architecture in which countries submitted national mitigation targets or actions in bilateral annexes.

Crucially, the COP plenary did not formally adopt the Accord; it merely "took note" of it, after objections from countries including Bolivia, Venezuela, Sudan, Nicaragua, and Tuvalu over both the substance and the closed-door process. The outcome is widely viewed as a diplomatic disappointment relative to expectations, but it shifted the architecture of climate cooperation toward bottom-up pledges — an approach later formalized in the 2015 Paris Agreement reached at COP21.