The 2011 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP17) was held in Durban, South Africa, from 28 November to 11 December 2011 to establish a new treaty to limit carbon emissions.

[3] While the president of the conference, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, declared it a success,[3] scientists and environmental groups warned that the deal was not sufficient to avoid global warming beyond 2 °C as more urgent action is needed.

The 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference extended the mandates of the two temporary subsidiary bodies – the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP) and the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the convention (AWG-LCA) – so they were expected to meet as well.

[5] It was also expected to focus on "finalising at least some of the Cancun Agreements", reached at the 2010 Conference, such as "co-operation on clean technology", as well as "forest protection, adaptation to climate impacts, and finance – the promised transfer of funds from rich countries to poor in order to help them protect forests, adapt to climate impacts, and "green" their economies".

[6] A month before the Conference began, the BBC highlighted two contentious proposals which had been submitted – one by Russia, the other by Papua New Guinea, both aiming to amend the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Papua New Guinea's proposal,[8] submitted by Ambassador Kevin Conrad with the support of Mexico, would introduce a "last resort" mechanism to break any deadlocks in climate change negotiations through a three-quarters majority vote, thus clarifying the decision-making process under the convention.

[14] "Now, it is up to negotiators to heed our joint call-to-action and allow agriculture to play its part in building resilience amongst vulnerable populations, helping farmers adapt to more unpredictable and extreme weather conditions and mitigating future climate change".

"[11] Greenpeace issued a statement calling on conference participants to ensure a peak in global emissions by 2015, continue the Kyoto Protocol and provide a mandate for a comprehensive legally binding instrument, deliver climate finance and set up a framework for protecting forests in developing countries.

[16] The agreement, referred to as the "Durban Platform for Enhanced Action", was notable in that for the first time it included developing countries such as China and India, as well as the US which had refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.

[17] The Ad Hoc Working Group on the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action was consequently established to conclude the shaping of the next climate regime, which must include the entire international community – including the United States and emerging countries – in the fight against global warming (unlike the Kyoto Protocol, which only imposes binding reduction targets on countries listed in Annex I).

[3] After the conference concluded, Michael Jacobs of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment in London, said: "The agreement here has not in itself taken us off the 4 °C path we are on...

Senator Jim Inhofe, who opposes government energy regulations such as cap-and-trade and has called man-made climate change a hoax,[19] cheered what he called the setting aside of "any remote possibility of a UN global warming treaty" and described the conference outcome as "the complete collapse of the global warming movement and the failure of the Kyoto process".

[20] German media criticised the outcome as "almost useless", saying the pledges are vague and the timeline is slow, the main merit being that the talks have been kept alive.