"Grassroot movements are important, and so are international negotiations."
If you are wondering where did that quote came from, don't fret, I made it up.
We all know that the 3R is important, we don't leave electricity running when it's not in used, we don't burn our garbage - textbook perfect ain't we? But those are all grassroots level actions, what about the stuff the government does?
Now that brings us to international climate change negotiations. Before you drown in all the fancy and sophisticated glossary terms, there is this one simple thing you need to know about: the UNFCCC.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an international environmental treaty.
Why is this UNFCCC thing so important?
The UNFCCC is broadly legitimate because many countries are members of it. It contains the goals and objective (so people know where they are heading to), what who wants from whom, etc. Under the UNFCCC, negotiators have produced the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement (which is a huge chunk of information that will not be discussed here). To understand the big picture of the United Nations climate change regime, you will need to know about the UNFCCC.
Here is a link to Understanding the UN Climate Change regime. It will give you a big picture of what has the UN done and what are they doing now against climate change.
What has the UNFCCC done?
So countries around the world say they are cool with the idea of fighting climate change (becoming a member of the UNFCCC), then they would need to discuss the details of the idea. UNFCCC knows that this discussion is important to conclude the details that everyone is okay with (since no one is going to do something that they don't like right?), Voilà, everyone will meet up once a year at the Conference of Parties (COP) to discuss this together!
At the COP, there will be many events going on at the same time: negotiations, exhibitions, protests, etc. (but we will be focusing on the negotiation part in this post). Each country will send representatives to negotiate what they want or don't want in the agreement so that they can eventually come up with something everyone can use).
The UN has started its climate change action since 1979 when the first World Climate Conference was held before the UNFCCC came into force in 1994. Many things had been done (link below), but two of the most important thing that happened was the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement. The Kyoto Protocol COMMITS its parties to reduce emission, but it was not warmly welcomed by many developed countries with huge emission (it largely affects their production and consumption of cheap but dirty energy). The Paris Agreement, compared to the Kyoto Protocol, was much more favored by everyone because it is not as strict as the Kyoto Protocol.
Sources from Background on UNFCCC. Please do check the website out if you want to learn more about its history.
Central questions and problems of the UNFCCC
1. Scientists see a real risk that the climate will change rapidly and dramatically over the coming decades and centuries. Can we handle it?
2. If the consequences of a problem are uncertain, do you ignore the problem or do you do something about it anyway?
3. The injustice between rich and poor countries
4. If the whole world starts consuming more and living the good life, can the planet stand the strain?
5. Emissions are still growing, Isn't it time to take some serious action?
6. How can we make our behavior and our economies more climate-friendly?
7. How should we divide the work - while sharing the burden fairly?
8. I don't want to spend more money on this than is absolutely necessary!
All these questions and problems are explained and the solutions from both the convention and Kyoto Protocol can be found here at the: Understanding Climate Change: A beginner's guide to the UN Framework Convention and its Kyoto Protocol.
If you would like to learn more, here is a prezi presentation link on the introduction to UNFCCC.
If you would like to learn more, here is a prezi presentation link on the introduction to UNFCCC.
