What is the UNFCCC?

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was initiated in 1990 by the United Nations. At the UN Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, 154 countries signed the UNFCCC. Today, 192 countries have ratified the convention, including the USA.

The Convention on Climate Change sets an overall framework for intergovernmental efforts to tackle the challenges created by climate change. It acknowledges that the climate system is a shared ressource whose stability can be affected by industrial and other emissions of CO₂ and other greenhouse gases. According to the objective paragraph, the goals of the Convention are to stabilise the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere in such a way as to give ecosystems the opportunity to adapt naturally. Food safety must not be compromised, and the potential to form sustainable social and economic development must not be endangered.

Governments under the convention bring together and share information on greenhouse gas emissions, national policies and best practices. They cooperate in preparing national strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the expected effects of climate change, including bestowing financial and technological support to developing countries.

Read the full text of the Convention here

Conference of the Parties

The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the supreme body of the Convention, consisting of delegates from all the countries that are part of the Convention. The COP is in charge of keeping the international efforts to tackle climate change on target. A central task of the COP is to examine the national communications and emission accounts submitted by Parties. Grounded on this information, the COP assesses the effects of the initiatives taken by Parties and the advances made in achieving the objectives of the Convention.

The COP gathers every year to discuss how the Convention's objectives can best be implemented. The Kyoto Protocol is the first binding treaty that the Parties have agreed upon. Just as the COP Presidency rotates among the five recognized UN regions ? Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Carribean, Central and Eastern Europe and Western Europe and others ? usually the COP venue shifts among these groups.

Read more on the UNFCCC here