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Today, all nations face the common threat of global climate change. The United Nations is addressing global climate change by raising awareness of global climate change promoting research and forging scientific consensus to address it mobilizing a global policy response and helping countries to adapt to impacts.
Negotiating a New Treaty to Combat Climate Change
As the Kyoto Protocol is set to expire in 2012, negotiations are underway to create a successor agreement. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is committed to climate change as a top priority. During his July 2007 meeting with President Bush, Ban raised it as one of the top issues requiring a joint commitment by the UN and the U.S. government. Ban also hosted a climate change summit in September 2007 and brought together more than 180 nations in Bali, Indonesia to agree on a way forward to negotiate a post-Kyoto Protocol framework to address the threats of climate change.
Diplomacy to Mitigate and Adapt to Climate Change
The United Nations system established a treaty to address climate change at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, with adoption of the “UN Framework Convention on Climate Change” (UNFCC), which was signed and ratified by the United States. This agreement established responsibilities for all nations to work to avoid “dangerous human interference” in the climate system. Developed nations, responsible for most of the emissions of greenhouse gases over the past 200 years, were to take a lead on addressing climate change, though all nations were charged with helping with the problem.
In 1997, an amendment to the Framework Convention was adopted. The “Kyoto Protocol” established more powerful, and legally binding, measures. It called on developed countries to commit to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by seven percent from 1990 levels by 2012. 168 countries are party to the Kyoto protocol – a sufficient number for it to enter into force – but the United States has declined to participate.
Promoting Research and Scientific Consensus
The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in 1988 to assess scientific, technical, and socio-economic data on climate change, its potential impact, and options for adaptation and mitigation. Drawing on a consortium of hundreds of officials and experts from relevant ministries, agencies and research institutions from member countries and from participating organizations, including the United States, the IPCC is considered the world’s most authoritative scientific effort to understand and address changes in the Earth’s climate.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a series of assessment reports in 2007, for which it won the Nobel Peace Prize along with former Vice-President Al Gore, determining that:
- Warming of the earth’s climate system is unequivocal.
- Most of the increase in global temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to human increases in the generation of greenhouse gases.
- Mountain glaciers and snow cover have declined in both hemispheres. Widespread decreases in glaciers and ice caps have contributed to a sea level rise.
- There is high confidence that the earth is experiencing an enlargement and increased numbers of glacial lakes and increasing ground instability in permafrost regions and rock avalanches in mountainous regions.
- There is high confidence that the earth is experiencing increased run-off and earlier spring peak discharge in many glacier- and snow-fed rivers and the warming of lakes and rivers in many regions, with effects on water quality.
- There is very high confidence that recent warming is strongly affecting biological systems, including bird migration and egg-laying and movements towards the north and south poles among plant and animal species.
- Unless climate change mitigation policies and related practices are changed, global greenhouse gas emissions will continue to grow over the next few decades.
- All parts of the world that were studied could experience substantial near-term health benefits from reduced greenhouse gas emissions; these savings could substantially offset the costs of greenhouse gas mitigation efforts.
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