International Efforts to tackle Climate Change

 The observations and the clear evidence of the phenomenon of “abrupt climate change” made the international political and scientific community initiate efforts to tackle the global problem of climate change. They were quite clear that the lack of attention to the climatic changes experienced by them would prove disastrous in the long run to its  economic growth agenda. This prompted the world leaders to come up with solutions to combat climate change.

UNFCCC- United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

The first attempt towards an international climate change jurisprudence was the intergovernmental treaty agreed to by countries in 1992 Rio Summit , better known as ‘ UNFCCC’ or United Nations Framework Convention on  Climate Change’. It is one of the three Rio Conventions adopted at the Earth Summit in 1992.

UNFCCC is a near universal ratified framework agreement with 195 member countries. The major objective of the framework is preventing “dangerous” human interference with the climate system. The convention entered into force in 1994. The Convention has no legally binding effect on the countries that ratified it.

Though a global convention was signed to tackle the issue of climate change, the convention failed to mention the specific actions or a roadmap towards achieving the objectives.

Kyoto Protocol under UNFCCC

To strengthen the efforts taken towards climate change, negotiations had started with the aim to bring a Protocol that is legally binding on the countries.  The negotiations resulted in the signing of Kyoto Protocol in 1997 with 192 countries ratifying the Protocol. The Protocol was based on the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities”.

Common but differentiated responsibility

As per the principle, the sudden increase in the global warming phenomenon caused by greenhouse gas emissions during last few centuries was the result of rapid industrialization by the developed countries compromising the environmental sustainability factor. For this reason, the responsibility of historic emissions lies on developed countries and they must adhere to higher emission reduction targets compared to developing countries. It implies that even though both developing and developed countries are responsible for the climate change phenomenon, a higher responsibility must rest with the developed countries as they are responsible for the historic emissions and also they can better tackle the issue with their advanced green technologies and financial capacities. Hence the Kyoto Protocol legally binds developed countries to emission reduction targets.

Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period was from 2008 to 2012. The second commitment period began on 1 January 2013 and will end in 2020.