UNFCCC: Convention on Climate Change
Voices from Brazil:
"I don’t know what climate change is, but I can say that we already suffer from the changes in the ways of nature. I understand that the REDD mechanism proposal is very interesting for us. The big issue is how we can adjust it and adapt it in a way that is good for the forest’s traditional people and does not harm them in any way, as other programs have in the past—not climate change programs, but other funding programs that were supposed to be a solution but didn’t even get to the communities.
The REDD proposal is interesting for us because it is a concrete policy for deforestation reduction."
Manoel Silva da Cunha, President of the National Council of Rubber Tappers
(Conselho Nacional dos Seringueiros, CNS)
Today scientists agree that only drastic global changes will slow climate change. This isn’t a new conclusion. At the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, over 192 countries ratified a treaty called the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, also known as UNFCCC. This convention had been recommended by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), the global authority on climate issues, established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP).
The goal of the UNFCCC is to bring countries together to devise political and technical strategies to fight global warming. In this treaty, the international community:
- Recognizes climate change as an important global environmental issue
- Acknowledges the role of human activities in climate change and the necessity of international cooperation
- Establishes that stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations is a critical goal
Under the Convention treaty, which took effect on 21 March 1994, governments agreed to:
- Gather and share information on greenhouse gas emissions, national policies, and best practices
- Launch national strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions
- Provide financial and technological support to developing countries
- Cooperate in preparing to adapt to the impacts from climate change
The ultimate objective of the Convention is to stabilize greenhouse gases in the atmosphere at levels that would prevent dangerous climate change, allow plants and animals to adapt naturally to higher CO2 levels, ensure adequate food production, and preserve sustainable economic development.
The UNFCCC accomplishes its goals by holding annual meetings called Conferences of the Parties (COP) at which participating nations discuss global climate change issues. The first COP took place in 1995 in Berlin, Germany, where member nations began negotiating targets and deadlines for developed countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
COP3, the third meeting, took place in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan where the well-known Kyoto Protocol was adopted. In 2004, the rules for implementing the Kyoto Protocol were approved during COP10. During COP 13 in 2007, forests were mentioned as part of the climate change solution for the first time.