UNFCCC
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[edit] United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or FCCC) is an international environmental treaty produced at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), informally known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The treaty is aimed at stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.
[edit] Conference of the Parties (COP)
The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the "supreme body" of the Convention; it is the highest decision-making authority. It is an association of all the countries that are Parties to the Convention. The COP meets every year, unless the Parties decide otherwise.
[edit] COP-1: The Berlin Mandate (1995)
The COP-1 launched a plan which considered “how to” strengthen the Climate Convention. The reason for this was that the voluntarily approach under the UNFCCC did not seem to be a good basis for strong political actions. Binding commitments was seen as necessary in order to achieve the environmental goals.
[edit] COP-2: Geneva (1996)
At this meeting the COP discussed (among other things) the formulation of policy mechanisms and the legally biding emission targets.
[edit] COP-3: Kyoto Protocol (1997)
The Kyoto Protocol to the UNFCCC was adopted at the third annual meeting. Most industrialized nations and some central European economies in transition agreed to legally binding reductions in GHGs of an average of 6 - 8 percent below 1990 levels in the time period 2008-2012.
[edit] COP-4: Buenos Aires (1998)
At the Fourth Session of the Conference of the Parties (CoP-4) held November 2-13, 1998, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change agreed to a two-year action plan for advancing the ambitious agenda outlined in the historic Kyoto Protocol. CoP-4 also saw a significant breakthrough on the issue of developing country participation in international efforts to address climate change. Argentina became the first developing country to announce its intention to take on a binding emissions target for the 2008-2012 time period. Kazakhstan announced that it intended to do so as well.
During the Buenos Aires conference, on November 12, 1998, the United States signed the Kyoto Protocol at the United Nations in New York. Signing reaffirms the United States' commitment to work with other nations to meet the Protocol's ambitious environmental goals and ensures a continued strong U.S. role in settling issues left unresolved at Kyoto. Signing does not impose an obligation on the United States to implement the Kyoto Protocol. (The Protocol cannot become binding on the United States without the approval of the United States Senate.) The President will not submit the Protocol to the U.S. Senate for approval without the meaningful participation of key developing countries in efforts to address climate change.
[edit] COP-5: Bonn
[edit] COP-6: Hague
The talks in Hague collapsed and the President of COP-6 suspended COP-6 without agreement, with the expectation that negotiations would later resume (termed "COP-6 bis")
[edit] COP-6: "bis" Bonn
This meeting took place after President George W. Bush had become the U.S. President. The US rejected the Kyoto Protocol in March. Despite this flaw major political issues such as the flexible mechansms, carbon sinks and compliance under the Kyoto Protocol was solved. The Flexible Mechanisms: Emissions trading, Joint Implementation and the Clean Development Mechanism. One of the key elements of this agreement was that there would be no quantitative limit on the credit a country could claim from use of the flexible mechansims. Rather, the targeted countries was regulated by the supplementarity principle and the resteration rate rule.
[edit] COP-7: Marrakech
The meeting in Marrakech completed the unsolved negotiations from Buenos Aires and the completed package of decisions is known as the Marrakech Accords.The main decisions at COP-7 included:
- Operational rules for international emissions trading among parties to the Protocol and for the CDM and joint implementation.
- A compliance regime that outlines consequences for failure to meet emissions targets but defers to the parties to the Protocol after it is in force to decide whether these consequences are legally binding.
- Accounting procedures for the flexibility mechanisms;
[edit] COP-8: New Delhi (2003)
one more time.. YEAH BANO!
licky licky roooongtime
[edit] COP-9: Milan (2003)
[edit] COP-10: Buenos Aires (2005)
[edit] COP-11: Montreal (2006)
The Montreal Action Plan is an agreement hammered out at the end of the conference to "extend the life of the Kyoto Protocol beyond its 2012 expiration date and negotiate deeper cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions."
[edit] COP-13: Bali (2007)
The conference at Bali, Indonesia gathered representatives from over 180 countries and representatives from intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations. The conference resulted in the so called “Bali Roadmap”, which outlined a new negotiating process to be concluded by 2009, that is, a future post Kyoto Protocol.
Emissions Problems
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