The threat of climate change cannot be tackled by any one country or group of countries in isolation. The global nature of the problem was formally recognised at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (the ‘Earth Summit’) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, where the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was agreed, and more recently in the conclusions of the Stern Review on the Economics of climate change.
To date, 189 countries, including all major developed and developing countries, have ratified the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The UK became a signitory in June 1992 and ratified it in December 1993. As a developed country party, the UK accepted the particular obligations this entailed, including a commitment to take measures aimed at returning emissions of greenhouse gases to 1990 levels by the year 2000. The UK prepared a detailed programme of measures designed to achieve this commitment for each of the main greenhouse gases and to fulfil the other commitments in the Convention, including those on assistance to developing countries on protecting and enhancing carbon sinks (such as forests), on supporting research into climate change, and promoting public education and awareness. The parties to the UNFCCC typically meet annually in a Conference of the Parties (COP) and twice a year in meetings of its subsidiary bodies.
Forestry achieved recognition as a global issue at the Earth Summit with the adoption of the Statement of Forest Principles, the first global consensus on the management of the world’s forests. The Principles set standards for the management of all types of forests in developed and developing countries alike. In addition to recognising the contribution of forests to sustainable development, the Principles also recognised the importance of preserving and enhancing sinks and reservoirs of carbon, principally forests and soils, as part of a comprehensive approach to tackling climate change.
Kyoto
The Parties to the UNFCCC quickly acknowledged that the Convention commitments could form only a first step in the international community’s response to climate change. The Kyoto Protocol, agreed at the third Conference of the Parties in Kyoto, Japan in December 1997, sought to address this. The Protocol entered into force in February 2005 and to date has been ratified by 162 countries. However, uncertainty about entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol led to a loss of momentum in international action. Crucially, it also did not address the increasingly urgent question of what further action would be taken by countries beyond the first set of Kyoto targets that expire at the end of 2012.
The issue of deforestation in developing countries was left out of the Kyoto Protocol and eligible activities were confined to afforestation and reforestation – not conservation – and there were limits on the amount that forestry activities can contribute to emissions targets.
Marrakesh
In 2001 Parties set a landmark in their efforts to arrest climate change with the Marrakesh Accords, a package of decisions including on land use, land use change and forestry. Previously Parties had acknowledged the three major roles of forests in climate change: forests are a source of carbon dioxide when destroyed or degraded; forests react sensitively to a changing climate; and sustainably managed forests provide a unique environmental service by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and by offering an alternative to fossil fuels. In Marrakesh, Parties capitalised on the climate change mitigation function of forests. As a result, forests in industrialised countries and reforestation projects in developing countries may contribute a large part of parties’ current carbon dioxide reduction commitments.
2005 and beyond
It was against this background that the Prime Minister put climate change on the international political agenda in 2005 by making it a priority for the UK’s Presidencies of the G8 and EU. The effect was to put a strong public and political spotlight on climate change and encourage unprecedented international debate by government ministers, scientists, parliamentarians, businesses, non-governmental organisations and other areas of society.
At their Summit at Gleneagles in July 2005 the G8 leaders agreed that climate change was a serious and long-term challenge, that it was caused by human activity and that urgent action should be taken to make significant reductions ingreenhouse gas emissions – a significant statement from countries that had not previously committed themselves to the case for urgency so publicly.
The Stern Review
The Review, led by the former World Bank Chief Economist Professor Sir Nicholas Stern, is the most comprehensive ever undertaken on the economics of climate change. The Review, which reports to the Prime Minister and Chancellor, was commissioned by the Chancellor in July 2005 and published in October 2006.
The Review assessed a wide range of evidence on the impacts of climate change and on the economic costs, and has used a number of different techniques to assess costs and risks. The evidence gathered by the Review leads to a simple conclusion: the benefits of strong and early action far outweigh the economic costs of not acting.
Climate change will affect the basic elements of life for people around the world – access to water, food production, health, and the environment. Hundreds of millions of people could suffer hunger, water shortages and coastal flooding as the world warms.
The Review estimates that if we don’t act, the overall costs and risks of climate change will be equivalent to losing at least 5% of global GDP each year, now and forever. If a wider range of risks and impacts is taken into account, the estimates of damage could rise to 20% of GDP or more.
In contrast, the costs of action – reducing greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the worst impacts of climate change – can be limited to around 1% of global GDP each year.
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