The European Union is satisfied, in general terms about the results of the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancún, Mexico. The Conference ended on 11 December with the adoption of a balanced package of decisions that set all governments more firmly on the path towards a low-emissions future and support enhanced action on climate change in the developing world. However, the EU point out how this two weeks Conference has shown once again how slow and difficult the process to build a comprehensive and legally binding framework for climate action is.

The Cancún Agreement builds on the decisions taken in 2009 in Copenhagen Conference on Climate Change and also sets out processes for making further progress in the future. This new Agreement represents a well balanced compromise between different interests within the United Nations system.

At the UN Climate Change Conference in Cancún, nations launched a set of initiatives and institutions to protect the poor and the vulnerable from climate change and to deploy the money and technology that developing countries need to plan and build their own sustainable futures. And they agreed to launch concrete action to preserve forests in developing nations, which will increase going forward.

They also agreed that countries need to work to stay below a two degree temperature rise and they set a clear timetable for review, to ensure that global action is adequate to meet the emerging reality of climate change.

Cancún Agreement on Climate Change Key elements

• Acknowledgement for the first time in a UN document that global warming must be kept below 2°C compared to the pre-industrial temperature, and establishment of a process to define a date for global emissions to peak and a global emissions reduction goal for 2050.
• The emission pledges of developed and developing countries have been anchored in the UN process and a process set out to help clarify them. The text also recognises that overall mitigation efforts need to be scaled up in order to stay within the 2°C ceiling.
• Agreement to launch a process to strengthen the transparency of actions to reduce or limit emissions so that overall progress can be tracked more effectively.
• Confirmation of the goal that developed countries will mobilise US$ 100 billion in climate funding for developing countries annually by 2020, and establishment of a Green Climate Fund through which much of the funding will be channelled.
• Agreement on the Cancún Adaptation Framework to enhance action on adaptation to climate change.
• Launch of a "REDD+" mechanism enabling action to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation in developing countries.
• Agreement to consider setting up new carbon market mechanisms going beyond a project-based approach.
• Establishment of a Technology Mechanism, including a Technology Executive Committee and a Climate Technology Center and Network, to enhance technology development and transfer.
• Establishment of a clear process for reviewing the adequacy of the goal of keeping global warming below 2°C, including consideration of strengthening the goal to 1.5°C, to be concluded in 2015.
• Extension of the work of the ad hoc working groups under the UN climate change convention and the Kyoto Protocol for a further year while leaving open the legal form of the eventual outcome of the negotiations.