UN Framework Convention on Climate Change

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an environmental treaty that entered into force on March 21, 1994, and has been updated a number of times since. The UNFCCC itself is a declaration of intent, set up to allow for the creation of specific mandatory emission limits through the adoption of subsequent updates; thus, signing the UNFCCC does not bind the signatory nation to specific actions the way signing and ratifying those updates does. The most recent update, the Kyoto Protocol, has eclipsed the UNFCCC in fame and recognition in part because of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush's decisions not to forward it to the U.S. Senate to be ratified (thus retaining the United States as a signatory of the ...