Eyewitness to global warming

Abstract

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an international environmental treaty that was agreed upon in 1992 at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, known as the "Earth Summit," in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The Parties to this treaty (i.e., the countries that have formally endorsed it) have been holding annual meetings since 1995. There are now 194 Parties that have formally endorsed the UNFCCC-which is nearly all of the world's 203 sovereign states. Although the UNFCCC is technically considered a "treaty," it's most accurate to think of it as an "agreement to agree" to take action steps that prevent the worst impacts of climate change. Nothing in the UNFCCC itself requires countries to take such action steps. That's why there have been 17 UNFCCC conferences since 1995: the world still has a lot to do before it will have a global agreement that stands a chance of dealing adequately with the threat of climate change.