The 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) did not produce the hoped-for successor to the Kyoto Protocol. Instead, ‘Decision 2’ of COP15 ‘takes note of the Copenhagen Accord of 18 December 2009’ (UNFCCC, 2009, p 4; emphasis in original). The Copenhagen Accord is an agreement among ‘Heads of State, Heads of Government, Ministers, and other heads of … delegations’ present at COP15, but it is not a protocol to the UNFCCC (UNFCCC, 2009, p 5). Instead, it is a voluntary agreement that sets no emissions targets for states but rather asks them to submit to the UNFCCC secretariat details of their own planned voluntary emissions reductions or mitigation actions. So, while the signatories recognise that ‘climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time’, they have not signed up to mandatory emissions reductions (UNFCCC, 2009, p 5).

China's submission to the secretariat states that:

These commitments impose no absolute limits on China's greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, the Chinese submission emphasises that ‘the above-mentioned autonomous domestic mitigation actions are voluntary in nature and will be implemented in accordance with the principles and provisions of the UNFCCC, in particular Article 4, paragraph 7’ (NDRC, 2010). The voluntary character of the Chinese mitigation actions is important, but the reference to Article 4, paragraph 7 of the UNFCCC may be even more important. This paragraph states that: