As of: May 2009

International climate policy

International climate protection is one of the biggest global challenges facing us in the 21st century. The 4th Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) finally furnished scientific evidence of continuing climate change and man’s influence on this change. However, this is hardly a new debate. Scientists have been discussing anthropogenic climate change since the late Seventies. The political process to protect the climate began in the late Eighties, and led initially to the conclusion of the Framework Convention on Climate Change, which entered into force in 1994. Since then, the United Nations has staged annual climate change conferences.

At the third climate change conference in 1997 the Kyoto Protocol was adopted. This was the first time that the participating countries agreed to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and to establish a binding timeframe. Even today, a large part of international climate policy is still based on the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol.

The process is accompanied by the IPCC committee of experts. The IPCC was founded in 1988, and has since published regular assessment reports, designed to serve as a scientific basis to support international climate negotiations.

The German Government is a driving force in international climate negotiations, both by setting ambitious emission reduction targets at national level, and by calling for binding regulations at international level. The successful climate policy achievements during Germany's Presidency of the EU Council in the first half of 2007 and the G8 Summit in Heiligendamm underscore Germany’s tireless commitment to progress within the context of the Framework Convention on Climate Change and the formulation of perspectives for international climate protection in the post-2012 period.

Conferences of the Parties

The signing of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro created a continuous negotiation process at international level on climate protection. Within the context of this on-going process, diverse aspects of international climate policy are discussed, and corresponding decisions are taken.

The Convention specifies that the participating countries should convene once a year at a Conference of the Parties (COP) to discuss further measures for international climate protection. The first such Conference of the Parties (COP 1) took place in Berlin in 1995. It recognised that the voluntary commitment by industrialised countries as set out in the Framework Convention on Climate Change would not be sufficient to ensure effective climate protection. The Parties therefore agreed to adopt a Protocol stating that all countries were to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, and explaining how this was to be achieved. At the second Climate Change Conference in 1996 in Geneva, the attending Environment Ministers resolved that this Protocol should set legally binding targets for reducing or limiting greenhouse gas emissions. At the third Conference of the Parties in 1997, this negotiation process eventually culminated in the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol.

To begin with, the Conferences of the Parties were involved in fleshing out the international climate regime and the Kyoto Protocol, as well as addressing a number of other topics such as the financing of climate protection measures in developing countries, public information, and more recently, adaptation measures for countries already affected by climate change.

In addition to the annual Conferences of the Parties, there are also two subsidiary bodies, one of which focuses on scientific and technical issues (Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technical Advice / SBSTA) while the other addresses implementation issues (Subsidiary Body for Implementation / SBI). While the COP regularly convenes once a year, the subsidiary bodies meet twice a year. In addition, several meetings are held every year by the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP), which was established at the 10th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 10) and which met for the first time in 2005, and, since COP 13 in Bali, the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the Convention (AWG-LCA). In addition, the Bonn-based permanent Secretariat helps to promote the process in a variety of ways. Key outcomes of the Conferences to date have included the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol and its formulation by the Bonn Agreement (COP6bis) and the Marrakech Conference (COP7).

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Man's influence on the climate is a scientifically proven fact, as illustrated by the 4th Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). This report is sub-divided into various working groups, and was published in 2007. The scientific findings of this Panel, which operates under the umbrella of the United Nations, provide an important basis for the European Union's (and Germany's) ambitious international climate policy. Only by incorporating the findings of the international scientific community into the political process and implementing its recommendations will it be possible to reduce climate change to a manageable level for society. In 2014 the IPCC plans to publish its 5th Assessment Report, which is currently being drawn up. In addition, the IPCC is currently preparing a special report on renewable energies to be published in 2010.

International climate protection within the framework of the EU

The EU's aim is to contribute to limiting the average temperature increase to a maximum of 2 degrees compared with pre-industrial levels. This target was reiterated in March 2007 by the European Council of heads of state and government.

In February 2007, the Council of Environmental Ministers, under Germany's Presidency, adopted ambitious climate protection targets for the period up to 2020 and an EU negotiation package for the post-2012 climate regime. This package was debated by EU heads of state and government at the spring conference in March 2007. A breakthrough was achieved for an ambitious integrated European climate and energy policy.

The European Council resolved that within the framework of an international agreement, the EU would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2020 (compared with 1990 levels), provided other industrialised nations commit to similar efforts, and provided newly industrialising countries also make a commensurate contribution. Independent of international agreements, the EU has already promised to reduce its greenhouse gases by at least 20% by 2020 (compared with 1990).