Environment and Climate

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an international treaty and negotiation process designed to combat “dangerous human interference with the climate system” by stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations.

• Inception and History:
• Scientific Context: The UNFCCC was established after the IPCC’s First Assessment Report appeared in 1990.
• Drafting: The convention text was drafted between April 30 and May 9, 1992, and adopted on May 9, 1992.
• Signing: It was opened for signature at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Earth Summit) in Rio de Janeiro, and signed by 154 states in June 1992.
• Effective Date: The treaty entered into force on March 21, 1994.
• Overarching Objective (Article 2): To stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations at a level sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally, ensure food production is not threatened, and enable economic development to proceed sustainably.
• Membership and Structure:
• Number of Parties: As of 2022, the UNFCCC has 198 parties, including all UN member states and several non-member states/organizations.
• Secretariat Location: The UNFCCC Secretariat supports the Convention’s operation and is located on the UN Campus in Bonn, Germany.
• Executive Secretary: The current Executive Secretary is Simon Stiell, appointed in August 2022.
• Classification of Parties: The treaty sets out responsibilities for categorized states:
• Annex I Parties (43): Industrialized (developed) countries and “economies in transition” (EITs). They are meant to limit their emissions and report on steps to return to 1990 emission levels.
• Annex II Parties (24): A subset of Annex I, comprising OECD members, required to provide financial and technical support to EITs and developing countries for mitigation and adaptation efforts.
• Non-Annex I Parties: Mostly low-income developing countries.
• Key Protocols and Commitments:
• 16.Kyoto Protocol (1997): It was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997, and ran from 2005 to 2020. It operated on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities, placing the obligation to reduce emissions primarily on developed countries, based on their historical responsibility for current greenhouse gas levels.
• 17.Paris Agreement (2015): The current central focus of the UNFCCC’s work is implementing the Paris Agreement, which superseded the Kyoto Protocol. Signed in 2016, this treaty covers climate change mitigation, adaptation, and finance. Its long-term temperature goal is to keep the rise in global surface temperature "well below 2 °C... above pre-industrial levels," with the more ambitious aim of holding the increase to 1.5 °C.
• 18.Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs): These are country-specific climate change mitigation and adaptation plans. They evolved from the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) submitted before COP21. Countries were given flexibility to tailor these plans to their specific needs.
• 19.Green Climate Fund (GCF): Established within the UNFCCC framework, the GCF is considered the world’s largest fund for climate finance, assisting developing countries with adaptation and mitigation activities. Developed country parties committed to mobilizing a collective goal of $100 billion annually by 2020 through to 2025 to capitalize the fund and address developing countries’ needs. The GCF is based in Songdo, Incheon, South Korea.
• 20.Further Commitments: Parties have also agreed to other commitments, including the Bali Action Plan (2007), the Copenhagen Accord (2009), the Cancún agreements (2010), and the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (2012).
• Notable Meetings (Conferences of the Parties - COP): The COP is the supreme decision-making body and meets every year.

• Other Important Information:
• Relationship with IPCC: The reports published by the IPCC provide the essential scientific basis for the annual climate negotiations held under the UNFCCC framework.
• Criticism: The UNFCCC has been criticized as being unsuccessful in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions since its adoption, partly because decision-making relies on consensus, giving individual parties veto power, and because major agreements like the Kyoto Protocol failed to include large developing countries. The Paris Agreement is also considered insufficient by most experts for keeping global temperature rise under 1.5 °C.