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The Global Climate Change Regime: How it has Evolved

Posted on by Ecological Policy Nexus

Introduction

The article discusses the historical evolution of the global climate regime, particularly, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process. Three main agreements make up this regime: the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol, and the Paris Agreement. It further exhibits how the scientists and policymakers initiated integrated actions to combat global warming and climate crisis.

How has the global climate change regime evolved?

The term ‘global climate change regime’ refers to a set of global institutions or frameworks that regulate the interaction of various actors in the international system to mitigate climate change. The three universal frameworks for the global climate regime are the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol, and the Paris Agreement. The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the UNFCCC are the two negotiations covering climate change issues under the UNFCCC Conference of the Parties (COP) (1). The COPs were established to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions and their atmospheric concentration within an internationally agreed time duration.

The 20th century is noteworthy for the scientific evidence and diplomatic activities against climate change by the evolution of the global climate change regime. Throughout the early 19th century, scientists such as American John Tyndall, Swedish Svante Arrhenius, and Swede Arvid Hogbom conducted groundbreaking discoveries on how much carbon dioxide is responsible for warming the temperature as well as industrialization’s role in producing the same amount of carbon dioxide as nature does (2). The work of English Guy Stewart Callendar warned the entire world about global warming led by increasing carbon concentration, which would increase with the escalating use of fossil fuels. This scientific awareness of climate change finally led to the First World Climate Conference in 1979 (3).

While the 1970s marked a growing scientific consensus on human-induced climate change, the 1980s saw politics integrate with science to formulate a collective stance globally by addressing climate change (2). Before the discussion of climate change, issues related to the environment gained access to the global arena, and the first environmental summit was held in Stockholm, Sweden in 1972. As a result, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) was established. Then, in June 1988, a global conference in Toronto titled ‘Changing atmosphere: implications for global security’ was arranged by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and policymakers and scientists from 46 countries attended it (4). One of the concluding remarks of the conference was- “if rapid action is not taken now by the countries of the world, these problems will become progressively more serious, more difficult to reverse, and more costly to address” (4). In the same month, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Institute for Space Studies also warned the world people with similar remarks in front of the US Congress (5).

1988 further recalls the establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) by the joint arrangement of the WMO and UNEP to develop scientific involvement to address and understand climate change and related adversities (6). Growing scientific unanimity has resulted in the expansion of global politics against anthropogenic climate change. “Climate change is a common concern of mankind” was an issued testimony by the UN General Assembly in December 1988, and the Assembly stressed that global society to collaborate to formulate a groundwork convention on climate change (7). Furthermore, the First Assessment Report 1990 convinced the UNEP and WMO to arrange an ad hoc group consisting of government representatives to negotiate the procedures to design an effective framework for climate change (8). Eventually, the UNGA installed the International Negotiating Committee (INC) to deliver the task of formulating a framework convention on climate change formally (9). The UNFCCC was successfully established in 1992 at the UN Conference on Environment and Development, though the final text of the convention was based on a compromising framework by texturizing the ‘consensus of all parties’ as the code of conduct (10). It entered into force with the approval of 155 countries and the European Union, and currently, 198 countries have ratified the UNFCCC (11).

The Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement have been the two instrumental forces of the COPs, the annual meeting of the UNFCCC parties (11). In 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted with the aim of the operationalization of the UNFCCC by actualizing the commitments of the industrialized countries to limit and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, while the countries must fulfil their pre-agreed targets of cutting emissions in the protocol by 2012 (11). It entered into force in 2006 and became an international law but not a legally binding instrument of UNFCCC. The most important instrument of the Kyoto Protocol is the flexible market mechanisms that are based on emission trading (11). However, the withdrawal of the United States (US) from the protocol, Canada’s never signing it, Japan, New Zealand, and Russia’s not participating in the second commitment period left the entire world in great uncertainty as to whether the norms would be effective enough to limit the carbon emission.

The Paris Agreement calls for significant socio-economic transformations to limit greenhouse gas emissions and achieve global targets by 2030 and 2050. To ensure accountability and transparency, all parties must submit their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) (12). Countries support each other by providing finance, technology, and capacity-building assistance. The Enhanced Transparency Framework (ETF) was established to track the progress of countries, and all information is processed in the Global Stocktake (13). The Global Stocktake is conducted every five years to monitor the performance of parties, international organizations, and non-parties under the Paris Agreement. The first global stocktake took place in 2023 (12).

The Paris Climate Agreement stresses the importance of joint efforts by government and non-governmental actors in the global society to combat climate change, resulting in a “hybrid multilateralism” (14).

Concluding Remarks

The global climate change regime is a set of global institutions or frameworks that regulate the interaction of various actors in the international system to mitigate climate change. It has evolved over the years, starting from the scientific awareness of climate change to the establishment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1988. The three universal frameworks for the global climate regime are the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol, and the Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement calls for significant socio-economic transformations to limit greenhouse gas emissions and achieve global targets by 2030 and 2050.

References

  1. Earth Negotiations Bulletin (2023) Summary of the Resumed Fifth Session of the Intergovernmental Conference on an International Legally Binding Instrument under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biodiversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction: 20 February – 4 March 2023. Available at: https://enb.iisd.org/sites/default/files/2023-03/enb25250e.pdf .
  2. Roberts, E. and Huq, S. (2015) “Coming full circle: the history of loss and damage under the ” International journal of global warming, 8(2), p. 141. doi: 10.1504/ijgw.2015.071964.
  3. The History of Global Climate Change Negotiations (no date) uk. Available at: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/the-history-of-global-climate-change-negotiations/
  4. WMO (1989) Annual Report of the World Meteorological Organization 1988. Available at: https://library.wmo.int/idurl/4/56614
  5. McIntyre, D. R. (2009) “James Hansen’s 1988 predictions compared to observations,” Energy & environment, 20(4), pp. 587–594. doi: 10.1260/095830509788707293.
  6. About — IPCC (no date) ch. Available at: https://www.ipcc.ch/about/
  7. United Nations. Dag Hammarskjöld Library (2014a) “Research guides: UN General Assembly Resolutions Tables: 43rd session (1988-1989).” Available at: https://research.un.org/en/docs/ga/quick/regular/43
  8. A history of climate activities (2015) World Meteorological Organization. Available at: https://public.wmo.int/en/bulletin/history-climate-activities
  9. United Nations. Dag Hammarskjöld Library (2014b) “Research guides: UN General Assembly Resolutions Tables: 45th session (1990-1991).” Available at: https://research.un.org/en/docs/ga/quick/regular/45
  10. Sands, P. (1992) “The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,” Review of European Community and international environmental law, 1(3), pp. 270–277. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9388.1992.tb00046.x.
  11. Home-UNFCCC (no date) Unfccc.int. Available at: https://unfccc.int/
  12. Paris Agreement (2015). Available at: https://unfccc.int/sites/default/files/english_paris_agreement.pdf.
  13. Reuters (2017) “Syria formally joins Paris climate agreement: U.N,” 14 November. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climatechange-accord-syria-idUSKBN1DE2KU
  14. Kuyper, J., Schroeder, H. and Linnér, B.-O. (2018) “The evolution of the ” Annual review of environment and resources, 43(1), pp. 343–368. doi: 10.1146/annurev-environ-102017-030119.

 

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