Woods Hole Research Center

The sixteenth Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the sixth Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol were held from November 29th – December 10th, in the city of Cancun, Mexico. A delegation of scientists, communications and capacity-building experts, and policy analysts from the Woods Hole Research Center attended COP16 and participated in a wide variety of events ranging from press conferences to workshops and to engage in ongoing discussions and negotiations under the UNFCCC.

A spirit of cooperation in Cancun resulted in considerable forward movement on several substantive issues under both the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action (AWG-LCA) and the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP). These issues include adaptation, technology transfer, REDD+, finance, and transparency and reporting; progress and outcomes in these and other areas are codified in the Cancun Agreements.

The WHRC continued its tradition of having a strong presence at UNFCCC negotiating sessions at COP 16 in Cancun. While there, our focus was on asserting the contributions of terrestrial carbon science in climate change solutions through a series of side events, workshops, peer-reviewed papers, and meetings with both governments and members of civil society. Scientists at the WHRC have been working to produce new research and tools to further the development and implementation of the UNFCCC’s terrestrial carbon policies and mechanisms; elements of our most recent work were presented and discussed in Cancun.