HISTORY OF FORMATION OF UNFCCC
The Villach Statement and its threat of global warming became an international forum for actions to curb emissions of green house gases to the atmosphere. Around the World a diverse range of interest groups, especially across the environment movement, co-operated to raise public awareness of the greenhouse climate change threat. Later a series of Government and National and International conferences of invited experts were widely reported in the media and ensured a raised public recognition of the issue. So, successful was the awareness- raising campaign that within 3 years the United Nations, through its agencies UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) and WMO (The World Meteorological Organization), had established an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which we know as IPCC. This organization was empowered with:
a) "Assessing the scientific informaton that is related to the various components of the climate change issue, such as emissions of major green house gases and modification of the earth's radiation balance resulting therefrom, and that needed to enable the environmental and socioeconomic consequences of climate change to be evaluated.
b) Formulating realistic response strategies for the management of the climate change issue.
3 working groups were established to address the IPCC objectives. The tasks of Working Groups I, II and III were respectively to:
i) Assess available scientific information on climate change.
ii) Assess environmental and socio-economic impacts of climate change.
iii) Formulate response strategies.
The working group did confirm the Villach conclusions and found a serious anthropogenic threat to the Global Climate. After a period of less than 18 months, in July 1990, the IPCC WG1 published their findings following an assessment of the available scientific literature. The principal findings of the report were:
i) There is a greenhouse effect because a range of gases occurring naturally in the atmosphere, such carbon dioxide, keep the earth's surface warmer than it would otherwise be.
ii) The concentrations in the atmosphere of a range of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, are increasing because of human activities.
iii) The increasing concentrations of certain greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide will lead to global warming but neither its magnitude, timing nor regional characteristics could be determined.
Later the United Nations General Assembly took up the challenge presented by the IPCC scientific assessment and the Statement of the second World Climate conference. An Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee was convened to develop a Framework Convention on Climate Change in time for the June 1992, Earth Summit at Rio de Janeiro. The committee, open to all member countries of the United Nations, met six occasions between 1991 and May 1992 before finally a reaching agreement. At the Earth Summit, representatives of more than 150 countries signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Cimate Change (UNFCCC) that result from negotiations. More countries signed subsequently. The Convention requires countries to take actions necessary for "Stabilisation of green house gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system."
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