Climate Policy

Climate policy refers to government or private actions designed to lower anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions or adapt to climate change. Emissions are rising worldwide and could result in substantial warming, sea-level rise, changes in precipitation patterns, and climate instability if the present trends continue. While knowledge of the greenhouse effect from increasing atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO2) due to fossil fuel combustion dates back to an 1896 paper by the Swedish physical chemist Svante Arrhenius, interest in climate policy began only in the early 1980s. At that time, the international climate community was preoccupied with the newly discovered hole in the stratospheric ozone layer. An international convention, or treaty, designed to protect it was approved in Vienna in 1985, and specific protocols were ...