26 February 2011: The UNFCCC Secretariat has posted online an assessment of the Cancun Agreements by Christiana Figueres, UNFCCC Executive Secretary.

In her assessment, Figueres highlights the main objectives of the Agreements, namely: establishing clear objectives for reducing human-generated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to keep the global average temperature rise below two degrees Celsius; encouraging the participation of all countries in reducing emissions in accordance to differentiated responsibilities; ensuring the international transparency of the actions and progress towards the long-term goal in a timely way; mobilizing the development and transfer of clean technology to boost efforts to address climate change; mobilizing and providing scaled-up funds in the short and long term to enable developing countries to take greater and effective action; assisting vulnerable people to adapt to climate change; protecting the world’s forests; building global capacity to meet the overall challenges; and establishing effective institutions and systems to successfully implement these objectives.

On the significance of the Agreements, Figueres notes that: they form the basis for the largest collective effort to reduce emissions, in a mutually accountable way with national plans captured formally under the UNFCCC; they include the most comprehensive package ever agreed to help developing countries to deal with climate change; and they include a timely schedule for countries under the UNFCCC to review the progress they make towards their expressed objective of keeping the average global temperature rise to below two degrees Celsius. [Publication: The Cancun Agreements]