Think about the very first time you heard about climate change or global warming. When was it? Was it this year? Last year? Five years ago? A decade ago? How about two decades?

The World Meteorological Organization held the first World Climate Conference (WCC-1) in 1979, nearly 30 years ago. Experts from around the world expressed concern that “continued expansion of man’s activities on earth may cause significant extended regional and even global changes of climate”. It called for “global cooperation to explore the possible future course of global climate and to take this new understanding into account in planning for the future development of human society.” The Conference appealed to nations of the world “to foresee and to prevent potential man-made changes in climate that might be adverse to the well-being of humanity”.

Nine yeas later in 1988 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was formed by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in response to world scientists’ growing concern about the changing climate system and humans role in the change. The IPCC was formed to provide policy/decision makers with policy neutral, independent, objective information based on scientific evidence about 1) the science of climate change, 2) its potential environmental and socio-economic consequences and 3) our mitigation and adaption options. Since their formation they have released four sets of Assessment Reports of the state of knowledge on climate change; the most recent was released in 2007.

The first report of the IPCC, released in 1990, served as the basis for negotiating the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), an international treaty that sets an overall framework for intergovernmental efforts to tackle the challenges posed by climate change. The UNFCCC was adopted at the United Nations Conference on Development and the Environment in Rio de Janeiro (a.k.a. The Earth Summit) in 1992 and went into force in 1994; 192 countries ratified it. The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC is “the stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.”

Although the UNFCCC was ratified by more than 190 nations, global greenhouse gas emissions continued to rapidly rise and it became evident that more binding commitments from signatory nations were necessary. The UNFCCC was/is not a legally binding document; it merely encourages member nations to take action. The member countries of the UNFCCC began negotiating a Protocol (an international agreement linked to an existing Treaty, but standing on its own) that committed its signatories to stabilizing their greenhouse gas emissions. In 1997 the Protocol was adopted by the third Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC in Kyoto, Japan, and was thus named the Kyoto Protocol. It was ratified and entered into force in 2005. The target global emission reduction goal is 5% below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012 (which is nowhere near the reductions recommended by the IPCC in their latest report).

To date 174 countries have ratified the Kyoto Protocol. Until December of 2007 the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases (the United States) and the country with the highest per capita emissions (Australia) had not ratified. But on December 3, 2007, the day Prime Minister Kevin Rudd was sworn in, Australia finally ratified. The United States, which contributes 25% of the world’s emissions, still has not ratified.

The IPCC was honored with a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

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Update (Oct. 2009)

The fifteenth Conference of the Parties (COP15) will take place this December (7th - 18th) in Copenhagen, Denmark. This year's Conference is an important one; the goals established in the Kyoto Protocol do not extend past 2012. It is the goal of this conference to establish an ambitious global climate agreement that includes all countries of the world to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.

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Update (Jan. 2010)

The Copenhagen Accord outlines the agreement reached on the final day of the Conference. While it's not exactly what most climate scientists and activists had hoped for, most recognize its a first step. The Accord commits to "deep cuts in global emissions...so as to hold the increase in global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius." It does not identify specifics on emission cuts and the agreement is not legally binding.

More resources...

• Go here for a webpage that contains a selection of some of the most popular content from Denmarks
  Host Country website for UN Climate Change Conference 2009 -  cop15.dk.
• Here is the Official Website of the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen