Global frameworks
Climate change is impacting countries throughout the world, and cannot be adequately addressed by each country acting independently without coordination with others. A unified global approach is essential. This is why international agreements have been established to set common rules for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and to put in place mechanisms to support developing countries.
This section focuses on the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement, which set common rules for promoting climate change measures, and the scientific foundations crucial for discussing the direction of global climate policy.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change — the world’s first agreement on climate change
When were the common rules for climate change countermeasures established?
Common rules for tackling climate change were first established in 1992. By this time, climate change was already seen as an issue that called for common global solutions, and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was accordingly adopted in that year as the world’s first agreement on climate change.
Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings have been held annually to promote actions under the UNFCCC. Drawing on assessment reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which evaluates the scientific basis for climate, and other relevant materials, member states gather at COP meetings to discuss the rules they are required to follow, including related goals and the reporting of greenhouse gas inventories.
At the third COP (COP3) held in Kyoto in 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted, setting numerical emission reduction targets for developed countries.
On adaptation, the UNFCCC requires developed countries to provide financial support for the initiatives of developing countries, which are particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. After the Kyoto Protocol was adopted, the Adaptation Fund was established as a financial mechanism to channel this support to developing countries.
Paris Agreement — guiding global climate action beyond 2020
The goals of the Paris Agreement
The Kyoto Protocol imposed emission reduction targets only on developed countries. However, at COP21 in 2015, the Paris Agreement was adopted as a post-2020 framework, establishing a fair, common rulebook that applies to all countries.
The Paris Agreement set a global long-term goal to hold global temperature increase to well below 2℃ above pre-industrial levels (the 2℃ target) and furthermore continue to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5℃ above pre-industrial levels (the 1.5℃ target).
The Agreement also explicitly states that it aims to enhance adaptive capacity, strengthen resilience, reduce vulnerability, and support sustainable development.
Actions required of all countries
Under the Paris Agreement, all countries are required to set their own emission reduction targets in the form of nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and report to the UNFCCC Secretariat every two years on progress made in achieving these targets.
NDCs must be updated and enhanced every five years based on the Global Stocktake, a five-yearly assessment of the world’s collective progress.
Reporting on adaptation initiatives in NDCs and biennial reports is voluntary.
(For more on the Paris Agreement, see Paris Agreement.)
Present-day and future climate change as revealed by science
Developing climate change policies requires a wide range of evidence-based information about the current state of the climate and how far its impacts may spread in the future.
To provide this information as the basis for COP negotiations, the IPCC regularly assesses and publishes reports on the current state and future projections of climate change. (For more on the IPCC, see IPCC.)
In 2019, at the request of the COP, the IPCC issued the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5℃, detailing the impacts of 1.5℃ warming and greenhouse gas emission pathways required to limit global warming to 1.5℃. The report also highlighted the significant difference in impacts between a 2℃ and 1.5℃ temperature rise, and the need for “transformational adaptation” that fundamentally changes lifestyles and urban development.
The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (AR6), compiled in 2021-2023 stated that “It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land.” It also addressed the limits to adaptation, transformational adaptation, and the importance of pursuing both mitigation and adaptation together.