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SEI at the Paris Climate Change Conference

The 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will take place from 30 November to 11 December in Paris. It is a crucial event, because its expected outcome is a new international agreement on climate change, applicable to all, to keep global warming below 2°C.

Marion Davis / Published on 24 November 2015

Related people

Profile picture of Sivan Kartha
Sivan Kartha

Equitable Transitions Program Director

SEI US

Michael Lazarus
Michael Lazarus

Senior Scientist

SEI US

Johan C.I. Kuylenstierna

Reader / Research Leader

SEI York

Kevin Hicks

Senior Research Fellow

SEI York

Sukaina Bharwani

Senior Research Fellow and weADAPT Director

SEI Oxford

Peter Erickson

SEI Affiliated Researcher

SEI US

Corrado Topi

SEI Affiliated Researcher

SEI Asia

Profile picture of Harro van Asselt
Harro van Asselt

SEI Affiliated Researcher

SEI US

Adis Dzebo
Adis Dzebo

Senior Research Fellow

SEI Headquarters

Twenty-four SEI staff will be in Paris to participate in dozens of activities at and around the COP, including six side-events at the conference venue at Le Bourget and a public event in the Climate Generations space.

World leaders adopted the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992, recognizing the problem of human-induced climate change and vowing to address it. The Kyoto Protocol, also adopted in Rio, set binding greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets for the first time, for industrialized countries, to cover the period 2008-2012.

The Parties hoped to reach a new, longer-term agreement at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in 2009 (COP15). Although the results fell short of that goal, world leaders recognized the common objective to keep global temperatures from rising by more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels. Developed countries also agreed to mobilize 100 billion USD per year by 2020 to support adaptation and mitigation in developing countries.

After years of working to find a new path forward, the Parties agreed in Warsaw in 2013 to develop national pledges (“intended nationally determined contributions”) that, collectively, would form the basis of new global climate agreement to be approved in Paris this year, and become effective in 2020. That is what is at stake at COP21.

Click on the menu items at right for listings of SEI-hosted COP events and related activities, relevant publications, news stories and opinion articles.


See a list of SEI-hosted events at COP21 »


Visit the official COP21 website »

Learn more about COP21 on the UNFCCC website »

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