As the United Nations conference on climate change is taken place in Copenhagen (7-18 December 2009), the IDDRI Climate team published a guide for the negotiations, providing keys of understanding to negotiators and observers.

The Copenhagen negotiations are a two-track process: one under the UNFCCC (LCA) , and one under the Kyoto Protocol (KP). Under each of these tracks, the work is subdivided into different building blocks. Instead of commenting on each issue separately, this paper analyzes the relationships between some of these topics. Indeed, there are mainly linkages in this very complex negotiation, and this is one of the main reasons why it has progressed so slowly during the past two years since Bali: nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. The main interdependencies are to be found between:  

• Shared vision and developed countries emission reductions
• KP and LCA
• Developing countries mitigation actions and MRV rules and procedures
• Matching support with actions

In the introduction, the paper also tries to give an answer the following overarching question: are we negotiating numbers or rules?  And in the conclusion, its look at what is likely to remain to be done after Copenhagen. 

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