PERSPECTIVE | FES WASHINGTON From»Brokenhagen« to»Cancún Can!« The Cancún Climate Summit and its Significance for Transatlantic Relations MICHAEL MEHLING December 2010 The 16th session of the Conference of the Parties(COP 16) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has mostly been considered a success. COP 16 has indeed given rise to some significant developments; however, one must look at the negotiations from different angles when evaluating its success. Its significance can only be thoroughly understood when seen against the backdrop of the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Summit. The revival of multilateralism has been prized as the most important outcome. On the one hand, the Cancún summit was free from the atmosphere of mistrust which dominated the UN climate summits of previous years. On the other hand, it is uncertain whether the willingness to compromise shown at Cancún will persist once the most difficult questions of the negotiations are addressed: the legal structure of a future agreement between all the signatory states and the extension of certain emission reductions prescribed by the Kyoto Protocol. As far as transatlantic relations are concerned, the significance of the Cancún Climate summit so far only lies in the fact that both sides continue to consent to the United Nations as the framework for their negotiations on this matter. For now, the modest success achieved in Cancún seems to have staved off calls for transitioning from intergovernmental climate collaboration to other kinds of forums and a greater emphasis on voluntary measures and regional or national approaches. After the US midterm elections this year, however, the year 2011 will show whether the United States is still able to keep the promises they made in Copenhagen to reduce emissions and make financial commitments. These promises were reiterated in Cancún. On that front, political developments at home will continue to have a decisive influence. In light of modest progress in the area of climate protection on the North American continent, Europe and Germany will find themselves under increasing pressure if they want to retain their role as a forerunner in the fight against climate change. More comprehensive commitments in the future could go hand in hand with a new revival of calls for additional excise duties on goods from countries which lack adequate efforts to reduce emissions.