Envirnment and Climate Change

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History Of Climate Conference

History:

UN summit conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) held in Rio de Janerio in June 1992 adopted, by consensus, the first multilateral legal instrument on Climate Change, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In 1992, countries joined UNFCCC, to cooperatively consider what they could do to limit average global temperature increases and resulting climate change, and to cope with whatever impact were. There are 195 parties to the convention now. The UNFCCC entered into force on 21 March 1994. The parties to the convention have met annually from 1995 in Conferences of the Parties (COP) to assess progress in dealing with climate change.

Some Important Conferences of the Parties are:

COP 1(Berlin, 1995)

The first UNFCCC Conference of Parties took place from 28 March to 7 April 1995 in Berlin, Germany. Parties agreed that the commitments in the Convention were "inadequate" for meeting the Convention's objective. In a decision known as the Berlin Mandate they agreed to establish a process to negotiate strengthened commitments for developed countries.

COP 3(Kyoto, 1997)

COP 3 took place in December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan. After intensive negotiations, it adopted the Kyoto Protocol, which outlined the greenhouse gas emissions reduction obligation for Annex I countries, along with what came to be known as Kyoto mechanisms such as emissions trading, clean development mechanism and joint implementation. Most industrialized countries and some central European economies in transition (all defined as Annex B countries) agreed to legally binding reductions in greenhouse gas emissions of an average of 6 to 8% below 1990 levels between the years 2008–2012, defined as the first emissions budget period.

COP 15(Copenhagen, 2009)

The Copenhagen Accord, a political agreement struck by world leaders at the 2009 U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, calls on participating countries to pledge specific actions they will undertake to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. This represents the first time ever that all of the world’s major economies have offered explicit international climate pledges.

In the case of Annex I (developed) countries, the nonbinding Accord calls for quantified economy-wide emission targets for 2020. In the case of non-Annex I (developing) countries, it calls for “nationally appropriate mitigation actions,” but does not specify what form they should take.

COP 16(Cancun Summit, 2010)

As per Cancun agreements, all parties to the convention(including the developed and developing countries) have agreed to report their voluntary mitigation goal for implementation. Mechanism of COP 16:

Technology mechanism: this is expected to facilitate the implementation of enhanced action on technology development and transfer in order to support action on mitigation and adaption to climate change.
Green Climate fund: GCF was established as an operating entity of the financial mechanism of the convention. The GCF will support projects, programmes, policies and other activities in developing country parties. The fund will be governed by the GCF board.
Adaptation fund: It was established to finance concrete adaptation projects and programme in developing country parties to the Kyoto protocol that are vulnerable to the adverse effect of climate change. Adaptation fund is financed from the share of proceeds on the clean development mechanism project activities and other source of funding. The share of proceeds amounts to 2% of certified emission reduction(CERs) issued for a CDM project activity

COP 18 (Doha, 2012 )

In Doha, Qatar, on 8 December 2012, the “Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol” was adopted. The amendment includes:

Amendments to several articles of the Kyoto Protocol which specifically referenced issues pertaining to the first commitment period and which needed to be updated for the second commitment period.
During the first commitment period, 37 industrialized countries and the European Community committed to reduce GHG emissions to an average of five percent against 1990 levels. During the second commitment period , Parties committed to reduce GHG emissions by at least 18 percent below 1990 levels in the eight-year period from 2013 to 2020; however, the composition of Parties in the second commitment period is different from the first.
Under the Protocol, countries must meet their targets primarily through national measures. However, the Protocol also offers them an additional means to meet their targets by way of three market-based mechanisms.
For the second commitment period, international emissions trading and joint implementation would also provide the Adaptation Fund with a 2 percent share of proceeds.

COP 20(Lima, 2014)

Main achievement of this conference was INDCs. Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) will form the foundation for climate action post 2020 when the new agreement is set to come into effect. INDCs are the commitments (now nationally determined contributions that maintain countries’ autonomy) countries are expected to make in order to keep average global temperature rise below 2°C – the internationally-agreed limit aimed at preventing irreversible climate change.

By: Vishal

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