UNITED NATIONS
NATIONS UNIES

INTERGOVERNMENTAL NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE
FOR A FRAMEWORK CONVENTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE (INC/FCCC)

COMITÉ INTERGOUVERNEMENTAL DE NÉGOCIATION
D'UNE CONVENTION-CADRE SUR LES CHANGEMENTS CLIMATIQUES (CIN/CCCC)

Climate Change Treaty Goes Into Effect

Geneva, 21 March 1994 -- The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change enters into force today, 90 days after receiving its 50th ratification and less than two years after it was signed by over 150 Governments at the Rio Earth Summit. This means that the treaty is now international law and legally binding on its Parties (i.e. ratifying countries), which already include most of the major emitters of greenhouse gases.

The treaty commits developed country Parties to take measures aimed at returning their emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by the year 2000. They now have just six months until the 21 September deadline for submitting information explaining how they plan to meet this and other Convention obligations.

These other commitments include protecting and enhancing greenhouse gas "sinks" and "reservoirs" (such as forests that absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere) and providing financial and technological resources to help developing countries adapt to climate change and implement the treaty.

As for developing countries, they are not required to limit emissions. However, they (along with developed countries) have accepted commitments to draw up "inventories" listing the sources and quantities of their national greenhouse gas emissions, carry out national programmes for mitigating climate change and adapting to its effects, strengthen scientific and technical research activities, and promote education and public awareness programmes about climate change.

Carbon dioxide is the biggest immediate challenge for developed countries. Most CO2 is emitted by the burning of fossil fuels (oil, gas, and coal), although deforestation and other land clearances also contribute. The national reports that developed countries will soon submit (and update at regular intervals) are likely to describe a mix of regulatory, voluntary, and other measures for encouraging industry, power stations, households, public authorities, and the transport sector to control their emissions.

Though prepared for an international forum, these national reports should be essential reading for national policy-makers and the informed public. It is at this level -- of individuals changing how they use energy in their homes and daily lives, of companies responding to incentives for technological innovation and energy conservation, of local politicians introducing energy efficiency into transport networks and building codes -- that the Climate Change Convention will become a reality for most people. As of early March, two countries (Canada and the UK) have already submitted their reports under the Convention. Other countries have also published preliminary information; they are Australia, Cuba, the Czech Republic, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Slovakia, Switzerland, and the US.

Meanwhile, it is now widely recognised by Governments that bringing developed country emissions back to 1990 levels by the year 2000 will not be enough to achieve the Convention's objective of stabilising "greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic [man-made] interference with the climate system." Says Prof. Bert Bolin, a leading international scientist from Sweden and chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which produces highly influential scientific and technical assessment reports, "Stabilising developed country emissions of carbon dioxide, as is presently being aimed for, is only a very modest first step towards stabilising atmospheric concentrations of this gas. Because CO2 emissions remain for such a long time in the atmosphere, even stabilising total global emissions would not stabilise atmospheric concentrations for several hundred years."

Prof. Bolin highlights total global emissions because under the treaty only developed countries must aim to stabilise their emissions. The Convention accepts that the first priority of developing countries is their own economic and social development, and that their emissions will rise as they industrialise. As a result, although developed countries aim to stabilise or even reduce their emissions, total global emissions will still continue to rise. This is why breaking the link between economic development and greenhouse gas emissions is the fundamental, long-term challenge facing the world community.

According to the treaty, the adequacy of developed country commitments must be reviewed at the first session of the Conference of the Parties, the body that will be responsible for overseeing the implementation of the Convention. This session is scheduled for March 1995 in Berlin. The review will be based in part on a Special Report that the IPCC plans to release in November 1994 to update its assessment of the work being conducted at research and monitoring centres around the world into the causes and impacts of climate change. The review will also consider the effectiveness of developed country efforts to limit emissions as described in the national reports.

The Berlin meeting will need to finalise many other decisions as well. One of the most important relates to the financial arrangements for the treaty. The COP must finalise guidelines on how developed countries should assist developing countries in implementing the Convention. Because so many decisions must be made at the COP's first session, two more intergovernmental meetings will be held to prepare the way. The first will take place 22 August - 2 September 1994 in Geneva, while the second is scheduled for early 1995 in New York.