Scientific assessment enters intergovernmental negotiations
In 1988, the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to bring together assessments of climate change and its impacts. Following its first assessment report in 1990, climate issues moved further into intergovernmental negotiations. On 21 December that year, the UN General Assembly established the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee for a Framework Convention on Climate Change, asking it to produce a text before the 1992 Conference on Environment and Development.
The committee's first session took place in Chantilly, Virginia, in February 1991, with Jean Ripert of France elected chair. Negotiations subsequently moved to Geneva, Nairobi and New York. Scientific assessments provided a basis for discussion, but government representatives still negotiated the substance of commitments, financial responsibilities and methods of oversight.
Disputes over emission targets and the right to development
Negotiating divisions were not a simple confrontation between developed and developing countries. The European Community supported emission targets and timetables, while the United States strongly opposed them. Developing countries emphasized room for economic development and financial support, while small island states called for stronger action because of sea-level risks.
Daniel Bodansky's contemporary study notes that the final text retained several compromises and arrangements left for further discussion. On 9 May 1992, the committee adopted the Convention in New York. Its purpose was both to establish a common direction and to create procedures for continuing negotiations and reviewing implementation, rather than to settle every emissions-reduction responsibility immediately.
Adoption, signature and entry into force as separate stages
The Convention then opened for signature in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 4 to 14 June 1992, before moving to United Nations Headquarters in New York. The signature period ended on 19 June 1993. Signing did not automatically complete the process of becoming a party: states and eligible regional economic integration organizations still had to deposit instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession.
Under Article 23, the Convention entered into force on 21 March 1994, the ninetieth day after the fiftieth relevant instrument. China's depositary record separately lists signature on 11 June 1992 and deposit of its instrument of ratification on 5 January 1993. The former date records signature and the latter completion of the ratification procedure with the depositary. Neither replaces the Convention's general entry-into-force date.
A common objective and differentiated commitments
Article 2 defines the ultimate objective as stabilizing greenhouse-gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that prevents dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system, while allowing for ecosystem adaptation, food production and sustainable development. Article 3 emphasizes equity, common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities. It calls on developed countries to take the lead and recognizes the special needs of vulnerable developing countries.
All parties must prepare inventories of greenhouse-gas emissions and removals and formulate mitigation and adaptation programmes. Annex I parties also have specific obligations to adopt policies and measures and report their anticipated effects. The Secretariat's handbook interprets the wording on returning to 1990 emission levels by 2000 as a non-legally-binding emissions-reduction aim. That does not mean the Convention as a whole contains no legal obligations.
Finance, information and continuing institutional work
The Convention connects capacity to implement obligations with finance and technology. It requires the relevant developed countries to provide new and additional financial resources and promote the transfer of appropriate technologies. The financial mechanism operates under the guidance of, and is accountable to, the Conference of the Parties. The Global Environment Facility was designated to operate it on an interim basis. These provisions set out responsibilities to be fulfilled; they do not establish that all necessary funding had already been supplied.
The Conference of the Parties, Secretariat and subsidiary bodies for scientific and technological advice and implementation undertake continuing work to compile information and conduct reviews. National inventories and information on policies and measures must be assembled using comparable methods so that international discussion can move from general commitments to inspectable national action. The reporting system thus became an important element in the Convention's early implementation.
Berlin turns reporting requirements into review procedures
The first Conference of the Parties met in Berlin from 28 March to 7 April 1995. Decision 2/CP.1 provided for in-depth reviews of the first national communications from Annex I parties. Expert teams coordinated by the Secretariat would examine emission inventories, policies and measures, projected progress and support provided, and prepare reports. With the country's prior consent, visits could also be made to help clarify information.
Decision 3/CP.1 urged the relevant parties that had not yet submitted their first communications to do so promptly, required continued submission of national inventories and established arrangements for second communications. Requests for overdue documents and the creation of expert reviews show that implementation after entry into force still required time, staff and common methods. A single international signing ceremony could not complete this work.
References: [5]
Strengthening commitments and measuring actual effects
The same conference adopted the Berlin Mandate, finding the existing commitments under Article 4, paragraph 2 inadequate. It launched negotiations to strengthen Annex I parties' commitments, seeking completion in 1997. This provided the negotiating process that later led to adoption of the Kyoto Protocol. The Protocol's subsequent quantified targets should not be retroactively inserted into the 1992 Convention.
Early results summarized in the Secretariat's 2006 handbook showed that total greenhouse-gas emissions from reporting Annex I parties fell by approximately three percent between 1990 and 2000, although changes differed markedly among economies. An aggregate decline does not mean every country met its target, nor can a before-and-after comparison alone attribute the entire change to the Convention. Its institutional achievement was an international process of continuing reporting, assessment and increased commitments. Actual emissions reductions still require examination country by country and measure by measure.