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The European Union, all EU Member States and virtually every other country in the world are Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the main international treaty for fighting climate change. Agreed in 1992, the Convention sets the goal of preventing dangerous man-made interference with the global climate system.
In 1997 Parties to the UNFCCC took the next step by agreeing the Kyoto Protocol. Under Kyoto's first commitment period, industrialised nations agreed to cut their emissions of six greenhouse gases (GHG) by an average of 5% below 1990 levels over the period 2008-2012.
Kyoto, which has also established international emissions trading and other market-based mechanisms to help reduce the cost of cutting GHG emissions, marks an important first step towards reducing emissions. Its impact is limited, however, because it requires emissions action only from developed countries. Moreover, it was never ratified by the United States, Canada has announced its intention to pull out and Japan and Russia do not intend to participate in a second commitment period.
The Protocol covers less than 30% of global emissions today and this share will fall further in future to no more than 15%. By 2020 nearly two-thirds of global emissions will come from developing countries, it is projected..
Towards a global legal framework
For this reason the EU has long argued that Kyoto should be succeeded by a global legal framework that requires action not only from all developed countries, which must continue to lead, but also from the major emerging economies in the developing world.
This demand finally won approval at the Durban climate conference in December 2011, which agreed to launch negotiations on a global legal framework applicable to all countries. The new framework is to be adopted by 2015 and implemented from 2020. The EU will continue to press for a framework that is ambitious, comprehensive and legally binding.
Copenhagen, Cancún, Durban
Until 2020, the international climate regime will comprise – on top of the existing provisions of the UNFCCC - new rules, institutions and commitments that have resulted from the Copenhagen (2009), Cancún (2010) and Durban (2011) conferences. The adequacy of the goal of holding global warming below 2°C will be reviewed in 2013-15.
In addition, a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol will begin in 2013 for those countries that wish to join. The EU has agreed to participate in this as part of the transition to the future global legal framework.
As well as the global climate negotiations held under the UNFCCC, the EU and Member States also participate actively in international policy and research fora whose decisions or recommendations feed directly or indirectly into the UN climate change process. These include the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the G8 and G20, the Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the International Energy Agency (IEA).