United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change


The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an international environmental treaty adopted on 9 May 1992 and opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June 1992. It then entered into force on 21 March 1994, after a sufficient number of countries had ratified it. The UNFCCC objective is to "stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system". The framework sets non-binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions for individual countries and contains no enforcement mechanisms. Instead, the framework outlines how specific international treaties may be negotiated to specify further action towards the objective of the UNFCCC.
Initially, an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee produced the text of the Framework Convention during its meeting in New York from 30 April to 9 May 1992. The UNFCCC was adopted on 9 May 1992 and opened for signature on 4 June 1992. The UNFCCC has 197 parties as of December 2015. The convention enjoys broad legitimacy, largely due to its nearly universal membership.
The parties to the convention have met annually from 1995 in Conferences of the Parties to assess progress in dealing with climate change. In 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was concluded and established legally binding obligations for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in the period 2008–2012. The 2010 United Nations Climate Change Conference produced an agreement stating that future global warming should be limited to below 2.0 °C relative to the pre-industrial level. The Protocol was amended in 2012 to encompass the period 2013–2020 in the Doha Amendment, which as of December 2015 had not entered into force. In 2015 the Paris Agreement was adopted, governing emission reductions from 2020 on through commitments of countries in Nationally Determined Contributions, with a view of lowering the target to 1.5 °C. The Paris Agreement entered into force on 4 November 2016.
One of the first tasks set by the UNFCCC was for signatory nations to establish national greenhouse gas inventories of greenhouse gas emissions and removals, which were used to create the 1990 benchmark levels for accession of Annex I countries to the Kyoto Protocol and for the commitment of those countries to GHG reductions. Updated inventories must be submitted annually by Annex I countries.
"UNFCCC" is also the name of the United Nations Secretariat charged with supporting the operation of the Convention, with offices in Haus Carstanjen, and the UN Campus in Bonn, Germany. From 2010 to 2016 the head of the secretariat was Christiana Figueres. In July 2016, Patricia Espinosa succeeded Figueres. The Secretariat, augmented through the parallel efforts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, aims to gain consensus through meetings and the discussion of various strategies.

Treaty

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was opened for signature at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. On 12 June 1992, 154 nations signed the UNFCCC, which upon ratification committed signatories' governments to reduce atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases with the goal of "preventing dangerous anthropogenic interference with Earth's climate system". This commitment would require substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions
Article 3 of the Convention states that Parties should act to protect the climate system on the basis of "common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities", and that developed country Parties should "take the lead" in addressing climate change. Under Article 4, all Parties make general commitments to address climate change through, for example, climate change mitigation and adapting to the eventual impacts of climate change. Article 4 states:
The extent to which developing country Parties will effectively implement their commitments under the Convention will depend on the effective implementation by developed country Parties of their commitments under the Convention related to financial resources and transfer of technology and will take fully into account that economic and social development and poverty eradication are the first and overriding priorities of the developing country Parties.

The Framework Convention specifies the aim of Annex I Parties stabilizing their greenhouse gas emissions at 1990 levels, by the year 2000.

Kyoto Protocol

After the signing of the UNFCCC treaty, Parties to the UNFCCC have met at conferences to discuss how to achieve the treaty's aims. At the , Parties decided that the aim of Annex I Parties stabilizing their emissions at 1990 levels by the year 2000 was "not adequate", and further discussions at later conferences led to the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol sets emissions targets for developed countries which are binding under international law.
The Kyoto Protocol has had two commitment periods, the first of which lasted from 2008–2012. The second one runs from 2013-2020 and is based on the Doha Amendment to the Protocol, which has not entered into force.
The US has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol, while Canada denounced it in 2012. The Kyoto Protocol has been ratified by all the other Annex I Parties.
All Annex I Parties, excluding the US, have participated in the 1st Kyoto commitment period. 37 Annex I countries and the EU have agreed to second-round Kyoto targets. These countries are Australia, all members of the European Union, Belarus, Iceland, Kazakhstan, Norway, Switzerland, and Ukraine. Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine have stated that they may withdraw from the Protocol or not put into legal force the Amendment with second round targets. Japan, New Zealand, and Russia have participated in Kyoto's first-round but have not taken on new targets in the second commitment period. Other developed countries without second-round targets are Canada and the United States.
All countries that remained parties to the Kyoto Protocol are in full compliance with their first commitment period targets.

Paris Agreement

In 2011, parties adopted the "Durban Platform for Enhanced Action". As part of the Durban Platform, parties have agreed to "develop a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force under the Convention applicable to all Parties". At Durban and Doha, parties noted "with grave concern" that current efforts to hold global warming to below 2 or 1.5 °C relative to the pre-industrial level appear inadequate.
In 2015, all 196 parties to the convention came together for the UN Climate Change Conference in Paris 30 November - 12 December and adopted by consensus the Paris Agreement, aimed at limiting global warming to less than two degrees Celsius, and pursue efforts to limit the rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The Paris Agreement entered into force on 4 November 2016.

Intended Nationally Determined Contributions

At the 19th session of the Conference of the Parties in Warsaw in 2013, the UNFCCC created a mechanism for Intended Nationally Determined Contributions to be submitted in the run up to the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties in Paris in 2015. Countries were given freedom and flexibility to ensure these climate change mitigation and adaptation plans were nationally appropriate; this flexibility, especially regarding the types of actions to be undertook, allowed for developing countries to tailor their plans to their specific adaptation and mitigation needs, as well as towards other needs.
, at the entrance to the United Nations, with a banner reading "We Will Move Ahead"
In the aftermath of COP21, these INDCs became Nationally Determined Contributions when a country ratified the Paris Agreement, unless a new NDC was submitted to the UNFCCC at the same time. The 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties in Marrakesh focused on these Nationally Determined Contributions and their implementation, after the Paris Agreement entered into force on 4 November 2016.
The Climate and Development Knowledge Network created a guide for NDC implementation, for the use of decision makers in Less Developed Countries. In this guide, CDKN identified a series of common challenges countries face in NDC implementation, including how to:
In addition to the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement, parties to the Convention have agreed to further commitments during UNFCCC Conferences of the Parties. These include the Bali Action Plan, the Copenhagen Accord, the Cancún agreements, and the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action.
;Bali Action Plan
As part of the Bali Action Plan, adopted in 2007, all developed country Parties have agreed to "quantified emission limitation and reduction objectives, while ensuring the comparability of efforts among them, taking into account differences in their national circumstances." Developing country Parties agreed to " appropriate mitigation actions context of sustainable development, supported and enabled by technology, financing and capacity-building, in a measurable, reportable and verifiable manner." 42 developed countries have submitted mitigation targets to the UNFCCC secretariat, as have 57 developing countries and the African Group.
;Copenhagen Accord and Cancún agreements
As part of the 2009 Copenhagen negotiations, a number of countries produced the Copenhagen Accord. The Accord states that global warming should be limited to below 2.0 °C. This may be strengthened in 2015 with a target to limit warming to below 1.5 °C. The Accord does not specify what the baseline is for these temperature targets. According to the UNFCCC, these targets are relative to pre-industrial temperatures.
114 countries agreed to the Accord. The UNFCCC secretariat notes that "Some Parties... stated in their communications to the secretariat specific understandings on the nature of the Accord and related matters, based on which they have agreed to ." The Accord was not formally adopted by the Conference of the Parties. Instead, the COP "took note of the Copenhagen Accord."
As part of the Accord, 17 developed country Parties and the EU-27 have submitted mitigation targets, as have 45 developing country Parties. Some developing country Parties have noted the need for international support in their plans.
As part of the Cancún agreements, developed and developing countries have submitted mitigation plans to the UNFCCC. These plans are compiled with those made as part of the Bali Action Plan.
;Developing countries
At Berlin, Cancún, and Durban, the development needs of developing country parties were reiterated. For example, the Durban Platform reaffirms that:

Interpreting article 2

The ultimate objective of the Framework Convention is to "stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system". As is stated in the article 2 of the Convention, this "should be achieved within a time-frame sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, to ensure that food production is not threatened and to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner".
To stabilize atmospheric GHG concentrations, global anthropogenic GHG emissions would need to peak then decline. Lower stabilization levels would require emissions to peak and decline earlier compared to higher stabilization levels. The graph above shows projected changes in annual global GHG emissions for various stabilization scenarios. The other two graphs show the associated changes in atmospheric GHG concentrations and global mean temperature for these scenarios. Lower stabilization levels are associated with lower magnitudes of global warming compared to higher stabilization levels.
There is uncertainty over how GHG concentrations and global temperatures will change in response to anthropogenic emissions. The graph opposite shows global temperature changes in the year 2100 for a range of emission scenarios, including uncertainty estimates.
; Dangerous anthropogenic interference
There are a range of views over what level of climate change is dangerous. Scientific analysis can provide information on the risks of climate change, but deciding which risks are dangerous requires value judgements.
The global warming that has already occurred poses a risk to some human and natural systems. Higher magnitudes of global warming will generally increase the risk of negative impacts. According to Field et al., climate change risks are "considerable" with 1 to 2 °C of global warming, relative to pre-industrial levels. 4 °C warming would lead to significantly increased risks, with potential impacts including widespread loss of biodiversity and reduced global and regional food security.
Climate change policies may lead to costs that are relevant to the article 2. For example, more stringent policies to control GHG emissions may reduce the risk of more severe climate change, but may also be more expensive to implement.
; Projections
There is considerable uncertainty over future changes in anthropogenic GHG emissions, atmospheric GHG concentrations, and associated climate change. Without mitigation policies, increased energy demand and extensive use of fossil fuels could lead to global warming of 3.7 to 4.8 °C relative to pre-industrial levels.
To have a likely chance of limiting global warming to below 2 °C, GHG concentrations would need to be limited to around 450 ppm CO2-eq. The current trajectory of global emissions does not appear to be consistent with limiting global warming to below 1.5 or 2 °C.

Precautionary principle

In decision making, the precautionary principle is considered when possibly dangerous, irreversible, or catastrophic events are identified, but scientific evaluation of the potential damage is not sufficiently certain. The precautionary principle implies an emphasis on the need to prevent such adverse effects.
Uncertainty is associated with each link of the causal chain of climate change. For example, future GHG emissions are uncertain, as are climate change damages. However, following the precautionary principle, uncertainty is not a reason for inaction, and this is acknowledged in Article 3.3 of the UNFCCC.

Parties

As of 2015, the UNFCCC has 197 parties including all United Nations member states, United Nations General Assembly observer State of Palestine, UN non-member states Niue and the Cook Islands and the supranational union European Union. The Holy See is not a member state, but is an observer.

Classification of Parties and their commitments

Parties to the UNFCCC are classified as:

Annex I countries

There are 43 Annex I Parties including the European Union. These countries are classified as industrialized countries and economies in transition. Of these, 24 are Annex II Parties, including the European Union, and 14 are Economies in Transition.
;Notes

Conferences of the Parties

The United Nations Climate Change Conference are yearly conferences held in the framework of the UNFCCC. They serve as the formal meeting of the UNFCCC Parties to assess progress in dealing with climate change, and beginning in the mid-1990s, to negotiate the Kyoto Protocol to establish legally binding obligations for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. From 2005 the Conferences have also served as the Meetings of Parties of the Kyoto Protocol. Also parties to the Convention that are not parties to the Protocol can participate in Protocol-related meetings as observers. The first conference was held in 1995 in Berlin. The 3rd conference was held in Kyoto and resulted in the Kyoto protocol, which was amended during the 2012 Doha Conference. The COP21 conference was held in Paris and resulted in adoption of the Paris Agreement. Negotiations for the Paris Agreement took place during COP22 in Marrakech, Morocco. The twenty-third COP was led by Fiji and took place in Bonn, Germany. COP24 was held in Katowice, Poland.

Subsidiary bodies

A subsidiary body is a committee that assists the Conference of the Parties. Subsidiary bodies include:
The work under the UNFCCC is facilitated by a secretariat in Bonn, Germany. The secretariat is established under Article 8 of the Convention. It is headed by the Executive Secretary. The current Executive Secretary, Patricia Espinosa, was appointed on 18 May 2016 by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and took office on 18 July 2016. She succeeded Christiana Figueres who held the office since 2010. Former Executive Secretaries have been Yvo de Boer, Joke Waller-Hunter and Michael Zammit Cutajar.

Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE)

Action for Climate Empowerment is a term adopted by the UNFCCC in 2015 to have a better name for this topic than "Article 6". It refers to Article 6 of the Convention's original text, focusing on six priority areas: education, training, public awareness, public participation, public access to information, and international cooperation on these issues. The implementation of all six areas has been identified as the pivotal factor for everyone to understand and participate in solving the complex challenges presented by climate change. ACE calls on governments to develop and implement educational and public awareness programmes, train scientific, technical and managerial personnel, foster access to information, and promote public participation in addressing climate change and its effects. It also urges countries to cooperate in this process, by exchanging good practices and lessons learned, and strengthening national institutions. This wide scope of activities is guided by specific objectives that, together, are seen as crucial for effectively implementing climate adaptation and mitigation actions, and for achieving the ultimate objective of the UNFCCC.

Available information about the commitments

In 2014, The UN with Peru and France created the Global Climate Action Portal NAZCA for writing and checking all the climate commitments

Commentaries and analysis

Criticisms of the UNFCCC process

The overall umbrella and processes of the UNFCCC and the adopted Kyoto Protocol have been criticized by some as not having achieved their stated goals of reducing the emission of carbon dioxide. At a speech given at his alma mater, Todd Stern — the US Climate Change envoy — has expressed the challenges with the UNFCCC process as follows: "Climate change is not a conventional environmental issue... It implicates virtually every aspect of a state's economy, so it makes countries nervous about growth and development. This is an economic issue every bit as it is an environmental one." He went on to explain that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is a multilateral body concerned with climate change and can be an inefficient system for enacting international policy. Because the framework system includes over 190 countries and because negotiations are governed by consensus, small groups of countries can often block progress.
The failure to achieve meaningful progress and reach effective CO2-reducing policy treaties among the parties over the past eighteen years has driven some countries like the United States to hold back from ratifying the UNFCCC's most important agreement — the Kyoto Protocol — in large part because the treaty did not cover developing countries which now include the largest CO2 emitters. However, this failed to take into account both the historical responsibility for climate change since industrialisation, which is a contentious issue in the talks, and also responsibility for emissions from consumption and importation of goods. It has also led Canada to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol in 2011 out of a wish not to make its citizens pay penalties that would result in wealth transfers out of Canada. Both the US and Canada are looking at internal Voluntary Emissions Reduction schemes to curb carbon dioxide emissions outside the Kyoto Protocol.
The perceived lack of progress has also led some countries to seek and focus on alternative high-value activities like the creation of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants which seeks to regulate short-lived pollutants such as methane, black carbon and hydrofluorocarbons, which together are believed to account for up to 1/3 of current global warming but whose regulation is not as fraught with wide economic impacts and opposition.
In 2010, Japan stated that it will not sign up to a second Kyoto term, because it would impose restrictions on it not faced by its main economic competitors, China, India and Indonesia. A similar indication was given by the Prime Minister of New Zealand in November 2012. At the 2012 conference, last-minute objections at the conference by Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan were ignored by the governing officials, and they have indicated that they will likely withdraw or not ratify the treaty. These defections place additional pressures on the UNFCCC process that is seen by some as cumbersome and expensive: in the UK alone, the climate change department has taken over 3,000 flights in two years at a cost of over £1,300,000.
Before the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, National Geographic Magazine added to the criticism, writing: "Since 1992, when the world's nations agreed at Rio de Janeiro to avoid 'dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system,' they've met 20 times without moving the needle on carbon emissions. In that interval we've added almost as much carbon to the atmosphere as we did in the previous century."

Benchmarking

is the setting of a policy target based on some frame of reference. An example of benchmarking is the UNFCCC's original target of Annex I Parties limiting their greenhouse gas emissions at 1990 levels by the year 2000. Goldemberg et al. commented on the economic implications of this target. Although the target applies equally to all Annex I Parties, the economic costs of meeting the target would likely vary between Parties. For example, countries with initially high levels of energy efficiency might find it more costly to meet the target than countries with lower levels of energy efficiency. From this perspective, the UNFCCC target could be viewed as inequitable, i.e., unfair.
Benchmarking has also been discussed in relation to the first-round emissions targets specified in the Kyoto Protocol.

International trade

Academics and environmentalists criticise the article 3 of the convention, which states that any climate measures that would restrict international trade should be avoided.

Engagement of civil society

Civil Society Observers under the UNFCCC have organised themselves in loose groups, covering about 90% of all admitted organisations. Some groups remain outside these broad groupings, such as faith groups or national parliamentarians.
An overview is given in the table below:
NameAbbreviationAdmitted since
Business and industry NGOsBINGO1992
Environmental NGOsENGO1992
Local government and municipal authoritiesLGMACOP1
Indigenous peoples organizationsIPOCOP7
Research and independent NGOsRINGOCOP9
Trade union NGOsTUNGOBefore COP 14
Women and genderW&GShortly before COP17
Youth NGOsYOUNGOShortly before COP17
FarmersFarmersUnder review, operates provisionally

Citations