2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference

Negotiations on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol dominated the conference. A meeting of environment ministers and experts held in June had called for the conference to agree on a roadmap, timetable, and "concrete steps for the negotiations" with the aim of reaching an agreement by 2009.

Initial EU proposals called for global emissions to peak within 10 to 15 years and decline to "well below half" of 2000 levels by 2050, with developed countries reducing emissions 20–40% below 1990 levels by 2020. The United States strongly opposed these targets, at times backed by Japan, Canada, Australia, and Russia. The resulting compromise mandated "deep cuts in global emissions" with references to the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report.