What is the United Nations doing to fight Climate Change and Global Warming?

Global warming is a global problem, and one of the most serious ones at that. Naturally, the global body United Nations should play a key role in solving it?

The UN indeed has been at the forefront of efforts to solve global warming. While the results of its efforts so far have been mixed, one can certainly say that it has been trying hard.

The main tool using which the United Nations is leading the fight againt climate change is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). This is an international environmental treaty adopted on in 1992. It entered into force in 1994, after a sufficient number of countries had ratified it.

The UNFCCC’s objective is to “stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”. The framework sets no binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions for individual countries and contains no enforcement mechanisms. Instead, the framework outlines how specific international treaties (called “protocols” or “Agreements”) may be negotiated to specify further action towards the objective of the UNFCCC.

The UNFCCC has 198 parties as of 2022. The convention enjoys broad legitimacy, largely due to its nearly universal membership.

The parties to the convention have met annually from 1995 in Conferences of the Parties (COP) to assess progress in dealing with climate change. In 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was concluded and established legally binding obligations for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in the period 2008-2012. The Paris Agreement, signed during the COP in Paris in 2015, entered into force in November 2016.

Some of the key tasks set by the UNFCCC for the signatory nations are:

• Establish national greenhouse gas inventories of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals
• Kyoto Protocol – The Kyoto Protocol sets emissions targets for developed countries which are binding under international law. The Kyoto Protocol has had two commitment periods, the first of which lasted from 2008-2012. The second one runs from 2013-2020 and is based on the Doha Amendment to the Protocol, which has not entered into force.
• Paris Agreement – In 2015, 196 then parties to the convention and adopted by consensus the Paris Agreement, aimed at limiting global warming to less than two degrees Celsius, and pursue efforts to limit the rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The Paris Agreement entered into force on November 4, 2016.
• Intended Nationally Determined Contributions – At the 19th session of the Conference of the Parties in Warsaw in 2013, the UNFCCC created a mechanism for Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) to be submitted in the run up to the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties in Paris (COP21) in 2015. In the aftermath of COP21, these INDCs became Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). The 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties (COP22) in Marrakesh focused on these Nationally Determined Contributions and their implementation.

The Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) has created a guide for NDC implementation, for the use of decision makers in Less Developed Countries.

As of 2022, the UNFCCC has 198 parties including all United Nations member states, United Nations General Assembly observer State of Palestine, UN non-member states Niue and the Cook Islands and the supranational union European Union.