After three years of work, the COP, at its sixteenth session, agreed that developed countries will implement under the Convention quantified economy-wide emission targets for 2020 as communicated by these Parties.

The COP urged developed country Parties to increase the ambition of their economy-wide emission reduction targets, with a view to reducing their aggregate anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases not controlled by the Montreal Protocol to a level consistent with the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Forty-two developed countries communicated targets under the Convention after Copenhagen. The targets communicated by most Parties, as contained in document FCCC/SBSTA/2014/INF.6, and subsequent submissions, are generally not represented as a single unconditional value, but as a single conditional value or a range of values. Conditions relate to the following: achieving a comprehensive global agreement, with the participation of all major economies; advanced economies agreeing to comparable mitigation efforts and actions; developing countries taking action in accordance with their differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities; and all Parties contributing their fair share to a cost-effective global emission reduction pathway. Other conditions and assumptions relate to an effective set of rules for LULUCF.

Also, the COP, at its sixteenth session, launched a process for clarification of the assumptions and the conditions related to the attainment of these targets, including the use of carbon credits from the market-based mechanisms and land use, land-use change and forestry activities, and options and ways to increase their level of ambition.

The COP, at its seventeenth session, decided to continue in 2012 the process of clarification of the developed countries targets, in particular focusing on enhancing understanding on base year, global warming potential (GWP) values, coverage of gases, coverage of sectors, expected emission reductions, and the role of land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF), and carbon credits from market-based mechanisms, and associated assumptions and conditions related to the ambition of the pledges. To support this process, Parties submitted further information on their targets, four in-session workshops were organized and the secretariat produced a technical paper synthesizing all available information. Reports of the workshops and presentations made by Parties can be found in the following link:

First workshop | Second workshop | Third workshop | Fourth workshop

The COP, at its eighteenth session, decided to establish a work programme under the SBSTA to continue the process of clarifying the targets in 2013 and 2014. Thus, discussions on identifying common elements for measuring the progress made towards the achievement of the quantified economy-wide emission reduction targets and ensuring the comparability of efforts among developed country Parties, taking into account differences in their national circumstances, are on-going under the SBSTA.

Information regarding the upcoming session (SBSTA 40) on the work programme can be found here.

Developed countries periodically report on their mitigation commitments or actions in the national communications.