United Nations

The UN Conventions on Climate Change

Regardless of the fact that the international scientists have drawn attention to the threats posed by global warming in the 1960s and 1970s, it took some years before the global community responded. In 1988, an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an authoritative UN network of 2000 scientists, was created by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization. In 1990, this group presented a first assessment report that reflected the views of 400 scientists. The report indicated that global warming was real and urged that something be done about it. The findings of the panel prompted governments to create an international treaty, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). By the standards of international agreements, the negotiation of the convention was rapid. It was ready for signature at the UN Conference on Environment and Development, more popularly known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.

More comprehensively, the Convention on Climate Change, which entered into effect on March 21, 1994, sets an overall framework for intergovernmental efforts to tackle the challenge posed by climate change. It recognizes that the climate system is a shared resource, the stability of which can be affected by industrial and other emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHGs). Under this convention, which enjoys near universal membership, with 191 countries having ratified it, governments gather and share information on GHG emissions, national policies, and best practices; launch national strategies for addressing GHG emissions and adapting to expected effects, including the provision of financial and technological support to developing countries; and cooperate in preparing for adaptation to the effects of climate change. Notwithstanding, the [Page 1001]recent UNFCCC report underscores the principal changes to patterns of investment and financial flows required to tackle climate change in the next quarter century. A major accomplishment of the convention, which is general and flexible in character, is that it admits that there is a problem.

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