UNFCCC

UNFCCC meaning

The Earth Conference in 1992, established the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change headquartered in Bonn, Germany, which then came into force on the 21st March 1994 and has been ratified by 197 countries. The treaty was established to call for ongoing research, meetings and negotiations between different states to maintain the average temperature of the Earth, protect biodiversity and ensure the growth of the world was sustainable.

In addition to the above, all the countries that have signed have agreed to share their sources of carbon omission and the ways it can be absorbed to form a national inventory. This means that each country submits their national carbon emissions which shows how much carbon they produce and uses these statistics policies to tackle the increasing amount of global carbon emissions.

Although the secretariat works to help sustainability, a growing concern lies with the institution not having accounted for developing countries who will tend to need to increase their carbon emissions to accelerate their economy. For countries that are still economically developing, it is expected that their production of carbon emissions will increase with the development of standards and services, however, the UNFCCC policies do not include provisions for developing countries and instead treat every country the same.

Climate policy

A climate policy tends to set out specific targets on how climate change can be reversed. As we know, the UNFCCC came together to create some collective policies to tackle climate change and two of their most significant pieces of climate policy are the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement.

UNFCCC Kyoto Protocol

Kyoto Protocol Country Targets, Wikimedia Commons

The Kyoto Protocol was enforced from 16th February 2005 after a long period of ratification. The protocol was signed by 192 countries and set out an agreement for individual countries to meet certain emission limits. However, these limits were placed solely on developed countries and developing countries like India were able to continue increasing their carbon emissions. According to the UNFCCC, forming these targets led to a reduction in emissions by 5% from 2008 to 2012.²

In the above picture we can identify three different categories:

• Green: Countries that are fully committed to the protocol. These tend to be developed countries

• Yellow: Countries that are partially committed but have some leeway due to the fact that they are still developing

• Red: Countries that did not sign up to the protocol

The emission targets were monitored in the following ways:

1. Registry systems: The countries must record all transactions which the establishments monitor internationally to ensure all protocol is being followed

2. Reporting: All countries submit their emissions annually and national reports at regular intervals

3. Compliance: This system established that all countries are following their commitments, and if they are not can seek assistance

4. Adaption: Assisting countries in adapting to the effects of climate change and also helps innovate technology to increase flexibility to climate change

During COP18 in Doha, Qatar The Doha Amendment was added to start from 2013-2020 in addition to the Kyoto protocol. However, this only came into force on the 31st of December 2020.

UNFCCC Paris Agreement

The Paris Agreement was enforced from 4th November 2016 and established in COP21 which took place in Paris. It came to be a landmark agreement whereby 196 countries agreed to work collectively to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius, with the intention of returning to pre-industrial levels of 1.5 degrees Celsius. The ultimate goal was to reach this by 2050 to stop the worsening of the environment.

In addition, the Paris Agreement is known to be legally binding, although there are various arguments as to what the extent for it is. This can especially be seen in countries such as America, where treaties need to be passed by Congress and not just an Executive Order by the President, which is what happened in this case by President Barak Obama, and also the reason why President Trump was able to withdraw the US from the agreement after he was elected.

It is important to note this agreement is not legally binding unless specific countries pass it into their own law.

As the issue of climate change is rising and evidence is seen in day-to-day life, ordinary people have an increasing understanding of what can happen if their way of life has not changed which has increased pressure on governments, to introduce more policies to protect the Earth. So forming agreements not only helps the planet but also makes the electorate happy.

Conference of the Parties (COP)

The Conference of the Parties is an annual conference held by a host country to discuss climate change, sustainability and evaluating and maintaining the Paris Agreement and Kyoto Protocol, we will explore two of the most significant recent conferences, COP23 and COP26.

UNFCCC COP23 Decisions

COP23 was held at the headquarters of the UNFCCC, Bonn, Germany in 2017. The most significant decisions that were made were based on the Paris Agreement and establishing a ‘rulebook’ by COP24. The Talanoa Dialogue was also recognised to replace the Facilitative Dialogue, where countries were able to track their progress as well as increase their NDCs and the Powering Past Coal Alliance, a group of 30 countries (which has since increased) aimed to cut their use of coal as an energy source by 2030.

UNFCCC COP26

COPS26 logo, UK Government, OGL v3.0, Wikimedia Commons

COP26 was held in Scotland, United Kingdom in 2021. A major decision was agreeing on the Glasgow Climate Pact which reiterated the goals of the Paris Agreement but also added the goal of ‘phasing down’ the use of coal in energy production, which was the first time it has been explicitly mentioned in any conference agreement, although it did signify to make it a net-zero emission rather not using it at all.

Other important goals include car manufacturers pledging to reduce emissions to zero by 2040 and over 100 countries pledging to reverse deforestation. It is important to note, that as we get closer to 2050 when many countries have pledged to become net-zero we have seen an increase in awareness.

UNFCCC Achievements

We can see from the Climate Action Tracker, a research organisation that tracks climate change, that the goals of the Paris Agreement have not been completely met, but they are on the way.³ More countries have pledged to achieve net-zero carbon emissions and developments such as electric and hybrid cars, some countries abolishing the sales of fossil fuel cars by 2030 and increasing funding in sustainable energy, have committed the dedication of the world to work cohesively to reduce climate change.