UN Framework Convention on Climate Change

In 1990, the UN General Assembly decided to begin formulating its first real climate convention. The background for this decision was gloomy: That same year the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had released its first synthesis report. It pointed out, that increasing emissions of greenhouse gases could affect the Earth's environment on an unprecedented and potentially very violent scale.

In June 1992, during an environmental conference held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was signed by 154 countries, including Denmark. The convention has since been ratified by 192 countries, including the United States.

Objective: stabilise greenhouse gases
The objective of UNFCCC is to stabilise the atmospheric content of greenhouse gases at a level that prevents dangerous human-made climate change. According to the convention's statement of purpose, greenhouse gases should be stabilised in a way that allows ecosystems the ability to adapt in a natural way. This means that food security must not be harmed, and the potential for sustainable development – social and economic – is not compromised.

The convention is a “framework convention”. This means that it is a comprehensive tool for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, but contains no binding obligations to reduce them.

Annual Conferences of the Parties
Each year the parties to the convention convene at a Conference of the Parties. The conference, known as a COP, is the highest organ in climate negotiations and decisions on the implementation of the UNFCCC are made at these conferences. Conferences usually last 14 days and all countries that have signed the UNFCCC are represented. Typically, several thousand participating delegates from member governments and observer organisations, journalists and business and civil society are present. In total there have been fourteen climate conferences. Latest COP14 in Poznan, Polen, December 2008.

The UNFCCC is administered by the UN Climate Secretariat, which is based in Bonn, Germany. Among the secretariat's tasks is to keep track of the countries that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol, as well as their reports on developments in their emissions of greenhouse gases. It is also responsible for such tasks as determining the agenda of the UN conferences and producing background papers.