United Nations climate change conferences

Since 1995, the United Nations has sponsored numerous conferences to address climate change. Conferences involve participants and representatives from hundreds of nations, nongovernmental organizations, and the worldwide media. Products of these conferences have lasting effects on international and national environmental policies and create foundations for future efforts to diminish human contribution to climate change.

Background

Greenhouse gases constitute what is called a “global negative externality.” Greenhouse gases are by-products of numerous economic activities as well as natural processes. When an individual or firm creates a negative externality, the negative by-products of their actions are not incorporated into their costs of production. Instead, they externalize these costs onto the global society.

Since 1995, the United Nations has sponsored conferences that educate the world on these issues and also propose methods for addressing climate change. As the world addresses the negative externalities associated with the emission of greenhouse gases, the production of resources that emit greenhouse gasses becomes more expensive, allowing people to substitute fewer carbon-intensive goods and services. In short, many of these policies work to set a price on the emission of greenhouse gases so individuals and firms will not externalize these costs onto society.

Partners of the UN efforts on climate change include the World Meteorological Organization, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Health Organization, and more than thirty other organizations. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) defines climate change as “a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods” (UNFCC, Article 1).

In most cases, climate change refers to the impact of greenhouse gases on climatic processes as well as alterations in the global carbon cycle. Greenhouse gases—which include carbon dioxide, nitrous oxides, ozone, methane, and water vapor—trap solar radiation and are increasing global temperatures. Human emissions of greenhouse gases, especially as by-products of the combustion of fossil fuels, have enhanced this process. Many of the goods and services produced by industrialized nations have depended on the emission of greenhouse gases. The United Nations has played a key role in advancing the international dialog on this environmental topic of global scale. In 2008, more than forty conferences and conventions were held worldwide in conjunction with the United Nations’ work on climate change. Conferences continued to be held throughout the 2010s and 2020s. The 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP28, was held in 2023 in Dubnai, United Arab Emirates.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme to assess and present “scientific, technical and socioeconomic information relevant for the understanding of climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation.” The IPCC was the recipient of a Nobel Peace Prize in 2007.

Three different working groups within the IPCC address the following topics related to climate change: the physical basis of climate change, impacts, adaptation and vulnerability, and mitigation of climate change. A fusion of the three groups is produced in Assessment Reports. All reports include summaries for policy makers and are presented at their individual conferences, held annually. As of 2009, four IPCC Assessment Reports had been made public (1990, 1995, 2001, and 2007), in addition to several technical papers on climate-change topics. Each official assessment combines the efforts of between one hundred and two hundred professionals and is headed by two scientists, representing one developed and one developing country. More experts are involved in reviewing the drafts of IPCC reports before they are submitted. IPCC does not make recommendations on policy. The IPCC publication Sixteen Years of Scientific Assessment in Support of the Climate Convention states the philosophy it supports:

To be effective, science must adapt, too, by continuing to review research needs and enhancing the central core integrative science in the communication and management tools developed with decision makers.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

The IPCC’s First Assessment Report served as the foundation for the formation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The convention’s aim is to prevent human intervention with the Earth’s climate systems in ways that would cause or allow dangerous situations.

The text of the UNFCCC was adopted in 1992 and was open for signatures that year in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Two other conventions were also adopted at that global meeting: the Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention to Combat Desertification). Under the UNFCCC, countries are divided into Annex I, non-Annex I, and Annex II parties, depending upon the level of the member country’s development. The United States, for example, is considered an Annex I country. Intermittent conferences for member nations of Annex I, non-Annex I, and Annex II parties are platforms for reporting of greenhouse-gas inventories, as well as funding sources (for non-Annex I parties) for implementation and compliance with the UNFCCC. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) oversees financial assistance to developing countries committed to the goals of the UNFCCC.

The highest decision-making authority for the convention is called the Conference of the Parties (COP). The COP has numerous responsibilities: keeping climate change efforts on track, reviewing implementation, and examining commitments with respect to the convention’s objectives, the latest science, and real-world experiences. Subsidiary bodies of the convention include the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI) as well as the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG).

The Kyoto Protocol

The Kyoto Protocol is the world’s first climate treaty. It is an international and legally binding agreement to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions worldwide. It was signed in Kyoto, Japan, and took effect on February 16, 2005. The total number of countries that had signed the protocol by 2009 was 189, including the United States, although as of 2010 the United States had not ratified the Kyoto Protocol. The development of the agreement stemmed from discussions at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, sponsored by the UNFCCC. The protocol’s main commitment is to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by Annex I countries (industrialized nations)—specifically carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride, hydrofluorocarbons, and perfluorocarbons—to average target levels of 5.2 percent below 1990 levels. Non-Annex I countries do not have specific targets but do have incentives for reducing emissions. The Kyoto Protocol is viewed as the first step in reducing carbon emissions and thereby reducing the world’s contribution to climate change. The year 2012 was designated to mark the end of the first phase of the protocol; the second phase of Kyoto was to begin in 2013 and run until 2017, although many nations supported a longer time frame.

While the Kyoto Protocol set a binding target for the reduction of greenhouse gases, it put in place several other mechanisms to address climate change, including emissions trading, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), and joint implementation. These mechanisms gave countries a host of options for meeting their targets for emission reductions, providing flexibility in how such reductions could be implemented.

First, the Kyoto Protocol’s mechanisms make greenhouse-gas-emitting goods and services costlier, thus incentivizing the creation of more efficient alternatives and a transition from the dependence on fossil fuels to renewable energy sources.

Emissions trading allows countries that contribute fewer emissions than their set targets to sell to other countries their excess “right” to emit. This, in essence, sets a price on emissions using market mechanisms. If most countries find it difficult to meet targets, the price for the right to emit additional greenhouse gases will be high. If most countries emit below their targeted levels, the price will be low. This market mechanism sets the total emissions, in other words, but allows for flexibility for individual countries. As the price of emission increases, individuals and firms will seek alternative technologies as they attempt to minimize their costs of production.

Second, the CDM aims at reducing emissions. While the Kyoto Protocol does not set emissions standards for developing countries, the CDM allows for developing countries to host projects such as wind farming, which can then be underwritten by developed countries. The developed countries then gain credit for their sponsorship. Projects in India, Brazil, and China have made up the majority of emissions savings, with a projected statistic of keeping more than 1.8 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide from entering the Earth’s atmosphere. The CDM thus creates an indirect method for incentivizing clean energy development in the developing world. Because a majority of the world’s population lives in developing countries, this increases their access to renewable energy sources rather than fossil fuels.

The last mechanism, joint implementation, gives countries the opportunity to reduce emissions by funding projects in other Annex I countries. Countries that fund these projects then receive credits that apply toward their emissions. Joint implementation allows countries to implement emission reductions in locations where implementation costs are lower. The global impact does not differ, but the location of impact does.

The Copenhagen Conference

In December 2009 Copenhagen, Denmark, hosted the fifteenth United Nations climate change conference, or Conference of the Parties (COP 15). Questions regarding levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse-gas emissions, time frames for change, types of commitments, and escalating concerns regarding enforcement of policies were discussed.

The product of COP 15, the Copenhagen Accords, reaffirmed the goals of the Kyoto Protocol, asserted a “strong political will to urgently combat climate change in accordance with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities,” set a goal of limiting global temperature increase to no more than 2° Celsius, acknowledged the impact of global warming on “countries particularly vulnerable to its adverse effects” (developing nations implied), reiterated the need for international cooperation and action, called upon developed nations to “provide adequate, predictable, and sustainable financial resources, technology, and capacity-building to support the implementation of adaptation action in developing countries,” and agreed to set emissions targets for 2020, to be submitted by the end of January, 2010. However, not all of the nations attending the conference agreed to the so-called accords.

Critics were disappointed not only in the dissonant and at times chaotic tenor of the meetings but also in conference’s failure to secure a legally binding agreement and its delay of setting emissions targets. The meetings were also dominated by intense debates and disagreements between representatives of developing and developed nations, the former blaming industrialized countries for emitting the lion’s share of greenhouse gases that had brought the world to the brink of unstoppable climate warming. As US president Barack Obama put it after the conclusion of the talks, “We’ve come a long way but we have much further to go.” European Union Commission president stated the concerns of critics more directly: “I will not hide my disappointment regarding the nonbinding nature of the agreement here.” Clearly, the overwhelming task of reaching consensus on and commitment to the actions that need to be taken to staunch anthropogenic contributions to global warming underscored the conflicting political, economic, and social interests of the world’s diverse nations.

The Paris Agreement

The twenty-first annual United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 21) was held in Paris, France, from November 30 to December 12, 2015, and was attended by 196 parties. The main purpose of the conference was to negotiate a new agreement on the reduction of climate change, known as the Paris Agreement. Under the Paris Agreement, each individual country will decide its own contribution toward the worldwide goal. Some scientists have criticized the agreement as insufficiently strict; it creates no deadline for creating these Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and no mechanism for enforcing them if a country is failing to meet its targets. In addition, the United States was opposed to a fully legally binding agreemend and so would not accept the agreement until emission reduction targets were made non-obligatory for developed countries, as they were already for the developing world. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change also acknowledged that the carbon-reduction levels that the countries had set for themselves were not enough to limit temperature increase to less than 2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century, much less to reach the new goal of less than 1.5 degrees Celsius. Nevertheless, the agreement was widely praised as a step forward in the process of limiting the human contribution to climate change, and was endorsed by some of the island nations particularly threatened by climate change, such as the Maldives. The agreement also created a $100 billion fund from contributions by developed economies to assist developing countries in reducing their dependence on fossil fuels and implementing renewable energy solutions.

The Paris Agreement engaged its first global stocktake in 2023. During these meetings, world leaders critically examined the state of world governments' response to global climate change and their progress towards Paris Agreement goals. The stocktake found that while progress had been made by many governments, the world's overall response was insufficient to meet the Paris Agreement's long-term goals. Additionally, the stocktake noted that world governments faced an increasingly narrow window of opportunity to help mitigate the effects of global climate change.

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