United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), created in 1992, is a treaty that serves as framework for its parties to negotiate actual agreements. These agreements are called protocols and include the actual provisions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or the like, but not the UNFCCC itself. With 197 Parties, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) has near universal membership and is the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement.
The ultimate objective of the treaties is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will minimise dangerous human interference with the climate system. To do so, and taking into account Parties’ “common but differentiated responsibilities,” industrialized countries are to “take the lead in combating climate change.”
The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the supreme decision-making body of the Convention. All States that are Parties to the Convention are represented at the COP. They review the implementation of the Convention and any other legal instruments and take decisions necessary to promote the effective implementation of the Convention, including institutional and administrative arrangements.
The Global Environment Facility (GEF) - Global Environment Facility is an operating entity of the financial mechanism of the UNFCCC on an ongoing basis, subject to review every four years. In addition, the GEF manages two special funds established by the Parties: the Special Climate Change Fund; and the Least Developed Country Fund (LDC Fund). It also oversees mitigation and adaptation to climate change. Mitigation is addressed in five different areas: (1) renewable energy; (2) energy efficiency; (3) sustainable transport; (4) sustainable management of land use, land-use change, and forestry; and (5) new low-carbon and energy technologies. Unlike climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation focuses on helping the most vulnerable countries through specific funds. The LDC Fund addresses the needs of 48 countries and the Special Climate Change Fund assists all developing countries.
