What are the worlds Governments doing about climate change?
The first major initiative for international co-operation to address climate change was the Rio Earth Summit in June 1992, which resulted in the signature of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The convention agreed a list of industrialised nations (including Russia, Japan, USA, Canada and the EU) that would take the lead in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. At a follow-up meeting in December 1997, the parties to the UNFCCC adopted the Kyoto Protocol. Under the Kyoto Protocol, the industrialised nations adopted: • legally binding caps on their emissions of greenhouse gases from 1 January 2008 onwards; and • the use of flexibility mechanisms (emissions trading) to reduce the economic impact of meeting the caps. The provisions of the Kyoto Protocol will pass into international law when ratified by sufficient national Governments. To date, Japan and the EU have ratified. Only Russia now needs to ratify to ensure that the Kyoto Protocol comes into effect.
