Timeline on International Agreements & commitments for action on Climate Change
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1979 First World Climate Conference. Climate change officially
recognized as a serious problem needing an international
response when evidence of increasing carbon dioxide levels
established. -
1988 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) established by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)
and the World Meteorological Organization. The IPCC is a
collaborative body comprising over 2,000 climate scientists
worldwide. Its main activity is to provide at regular intervals an
assessment of the state of knowledge on climate change. -
1990 First IPCC Report on Climate Change. The Report confirmed
that climate change was a reality and was supported by scientific data. -
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) signed by 154 governments.
The objective of the Convention is to stabilize greenhouse gas
concentrations. The governments of developed or annex I
nations were voluntarily committed to developing national
strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels
by the year 2000. -
1995 First UNFCCC conference. Governments recognized that
voluntary commitments were inadequate and work started to
draft a protocol for adoption at the third Conference of Parties in
1997. Second IPCC report concludes that the balance of evidence
suggests a discernible human influence on the global climate. -
1997 The Kyoto Protocol signed by some 160 nations at third
UNFCCC conference. The Protocol calls for the first ever legally
binding commitments to reduce carbon dioxide and five other
greenhouse gas emissions to 5.2% below 1990 levels before
2012. The US signed but has not ratified the protocol. -
2001 Third IPCC Report states that anthropogenic emissions will raise global mean temperature by 5.8 °C by 2050.
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2004 The Kyoto protocol is still ineffective. For the Kyoto
Protocol to be effective at least 55 countries have to ratify (fully
adopt the commitments) and there must be enough annexe I
(developed) countries that together are accountable for
more than 55% of the emissions according to the 1990 levels.
However, the percentage of annexe I countries is only 37.5%. -
2005 Kyoto treaty goes into effect, signed by major industrial nations except US. Work to retard emissions accelerates in Japan,
Western Europe, US regional governments and corporations. -
2007 Fourth IPCC report warns that serious effects of warming
have become evident; the cost of reducing emissions would be far
less than the damage they will cause. Dec 2007 UN climate
conference in Bali agreed on a Bali road map to have a global
treaty by the end. -
2008 Global economic crisis - reduction in an international will to
negotiate on carbon emissions reductions as national economies
fall but this fall results in lower GHG emissions from industry. -
2009 China overtook the USA as the country with the largest
greenhouse gas emissions. 192 governments at the Copenhagen
UN climate summit. -
2013 Milestone of 400 ppm carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached.An apparent pause in warming is explained as oceans have continued
to warm. -
2014 Fifth IPCC report was the strongest warning yet that global
warming is happening, human activities are mostly causing it
through burning fossil fuels and increasing carbon dioxide levels
in the atmosphere. -
At the twentieth Conference of the Parties, world governments will have the opportunity to make a last collective push towards a new and meaningful universal agreement in 2015.
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195 nations agreed to combat climate change and unleash actions and investment towards a low-carbon, resilient and sustainable future, on 12 December 2015.
The Paris Agreement for the first time brings all nations into a common cause based on their historic, current and future responsibilities. -
A crucial outcome of the Marrakech climate conference was to move forward on writing the rule book of the Paris Agreement.
The Conference successfully demonstrated to the world that the implementation of the Paris Agreement is underway, and launched the Marrakech Partnership for Climate Action. -
World leaders gather in Paris to demonstrate how billions of dollars could be shifted towards a low-carbon future. Financial flows are crucial for countries' national climate action plans under the Paris Agreement.
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The 2017 UN Climate Change Conference will take place from 6 to 17 November at the World Conference Center in Bonn, Germany, the seat of the Climate Change Secretariat.
Bonn will also make history by being the first COP to be presided over by a small island developing state: in this case by the Presidency of Fiji -
A special Global Warming of 1.5C report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change confirms the need to maintain the strongest commitment to the Paris Agreement's aims of limiting global warming to stave off the worst impacts of climate change, which include more frequent and more severe droughts, floods and storms.
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In Poland, governments adopt a robust set of guidelines for implementing the landmark 2015 Paris Climate Change Agreement. The agreed 'Katowice Climate Package' operationalizes the climate change regime contained in the Paris Agreement, promotes international cooperation and encourages greater ambition.
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Africa Climate Week in Accra is the first 'Regional Climate Week' of 2019. It will provide encouragement to the implementation of countries' Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement and climate action to deliver on the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
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As another critical stepping stone to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' UN Climate Summit 2019 in September, the Latin America and Carribean Climate Week in Salvador, Brazil, will bring together diverse actors from the public and private sectors and demonstrate that there is genuine international support for stepping-up climate action.
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To boost ambition and to accelerate actions to implement the Paris Agreement, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will host a summit in New York. The Summit comes exactly one year before countries are set to enhance their national climate pledges under the Paris Agreement.
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The Asia-Pacific Climate Week in Shenzhen, China, will become a wholly inclusive, 'go-to' hub for showcasing groundbreaking action in the region, particularly in the lead-up to the United Nations Secretary-General's Climate Summit in September 2019.