United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

UNFCCC

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
Type	Multilateral environmental agreement
Context	Environmentalism
Drafted	9 May 1992 (1992-05-09)
Signed	4–14 June 1992 20 June 1992 – 19 June 1993
Location	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil New York, United States
Effective	21 March 1994 (1994-03-21)
Condition	Ratification by 50 states
Signatories	165
Parties	198
Depositary	Secretary-General of the United Nations
Languages	Arabic Chinese English French Russian Spanish
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United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at Wikisource

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is the UN process for negotiating an agreement to limit dangerous climate change. It is an international treaty among countries to combat "dangerous human interference with the climate system". The main way to do this is limiting the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.^[1] It was signed in 1992 by 154 states at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), informally known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro. The treaty entered into force on 21 March 1994.^[2] "UNFCCC" is also the name of the Secretariat charged with supporting the operation of the convention, with offices on the UN Campus in Bonn, Germany.^[3]

The convention's main objective is explained in Article 2. It is the "stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic [i.e., human-caused] interference with the climate system".^[1] The treaty calls for continuing scientific research into the climate. This research supports meetings and negotiations to lead to agreements. The aim is to allow ecosystems to adapt to climate change. At the same time it aims to ensure there are no threats to food production from climate change or measures to address it. And it aims to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner.^[2][4]

The UNFCCC's work currently focuses on implementing the Paris Agreement. This agreement entered into force in 2016.^[5][6] It aims to limit the rise in global temperature to well below 2 °C (3.6 °F) above levels before the Industrial Revolution, and even aiming to hold it at 1.5 °C (2.7 °F). The Paris Agreement superseded the UNFCCC's Kyoto Protocol which had been signed in 1997 and ran from 2005 to 2020.

By 2022, the UNFCCC had 198 parties. Its supreme decision-making body, the Conference of the Parties (COP), meets every year. Other meetings at the regional and technical level take place throughout the year.^[7][8] The Paris Agreement mandates a review or "global stocktake" of progress towards meetings its goals every five years. The first of these took place at COP28 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in 2023.

The treaty sets out responsibilities for three categories of states. These are developed countries, developed countries with special financial responsibilities, and developing countries.^[4] The developed countries are called Annex I countries. At first there were 38 of them. Annex I countries should adopt national policies and take corresponding measures to limit their emissions of greenhouse gases. They should also report on steps for returning individually or jointly to their 1990 greenhouse gas emission levels.^[4]

It is problematic that key signatory states are not adhering to their individual commitments. For this reason, the UNFCCC has been criticized as being unsuccessful in reducing greenhouse gas emission since its adoption.^[9] Parties to the convention have not agreed on a process allowing for majority voting. All decisions are taken by consensus, giving individual parties or countries a veto.^[10] The effectiveness of the Paris Agreement to reach its climate goals is also under debate, especially with regards to its more ambitious goal of keeping the global temperature rise to under 1.5 °C.^[11][12]