United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Organization of UNFCCC member countries

The signatories to the Convention are organized into three categories with varying obligations:

UNFCCC Member countries

Source: UNFCCC. Author: UNFCCC. Permission: UNFCCC.

1. Annex I countries agree to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gasses to targets that are mainly set below their 1990 levels by the year 2000 per Article 4.2(a) and (b) of the Convention.  They have also accepted emissions targets for the period 2008-2012 per Article 3 and Annex B of the Kyoto Protocol. These countries may only exceed emissions allocations if they buy allowances or offset their excesses through a mechanism that is agreed on by all parties to the UNFCCC.  These countries include the 24 original OECD members, the European Union, and 14 countries with economies in transition.  Member countries include: Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, European Community, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America.⁵
2. Annex II countries are a subset of Annex I countries and have a special obligation to provide financial resources and facilitate technology transfer to developing countries. Annex II Parties include the 24 original OECD members plus the European Union: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, European Economic Community, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, United States of America.⁶
3. Developing countries are not expected to de-carbonize their economy unless developed countries supply enough funding and technology. Setting no immediate restrictions on these countries with respect to emissions does not restrict their development.   Furthermore, member  countries in this category can sell emissions credits to nations whose operators have difficulty meeting their emissions targets.  Finally, these countries are supported with financing and technology for low-carbon investments from the developed countries in Annex II.  The UNFCCC also allows developing countries to volunteer to become Annex I countries when they are sufficiently developed.

COP-3, Kyoto, Japan (1997)

The major product of this COP was the Kyoto Protocol.  Adopted in December 1997, the Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement that sets binding targets for GHG emissions reductions for 37 industrialized countries and the European community.  The major distinction between the Protocol and the Convention is that while the Convention encouraged industrialized countries to stabilize GHG emissions, the Protocol commits them to do so. Beginning in February 2005, members must reduce on average five percent of 1990 emissions over the period 2008 to 2012.  Most provisions of the Kyoto Protocol apply to developed countries, listed in Annex I to the UNFCCC.  Detailed rules for the implementation of the Protocol, the Marrakesh Accords, were agreed upon in 2001 in Marrakesh.   Although countries must largely rely national reduction measures, the Protocol also offers three market-based mechanisms to meet emissions-reduction targets:

• Joint Implementation (JI): a project that allows a country with an emissions-reduction commitment (Annex B Party) to earn emission reduction units (ERUs) from an emissions-reduction project in another Annex B Party country.⁷
• Clean Development Mechanism (CDM): a project that allows an Annex B Party to earn certified emission reduction credits (CERs) through the implementation of an emissions-reduction project in a developing country.
•  Emission Trading: the establishment of a carbon market through the trade of emissions and emissions reductions generated from a JI or CDM project. The UN Climate Change Secretariat maintains an international transaction log of all trades to verify that the projects and accounting are consistent with the Protocol. As a result, parties must maintain standardized emissions registries and compliance programs. For example, the 1996 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories is considered the preferred methodology to estimate national emissions.

COP-6, Bonn, Germany (2000)

The Parties reached agreement on most of the major political issues on the table during this COP.  The agreements included⁸ :

1. Flexible Mechanisms: These flexibility mechanisms include emissions trading, Joint Implementation (JI), and Clean Development Mechanisms which allow industrialized countries to fund emissions reduction activities in developing countries as an alternative to domestic emission reductions. One of the key elements of this agreement was that there would be no quantitative limit on the credit a country could claim from use of these mechanisms, but that domestic action must constitute a significant element of the efforts of each Annex B country to meet their targets.
2. Carbon sinks: ­Credit was agreed to for broad activities that absorb carbon from the atmosphere or store it, including forest and cropland management, and re-vegetation, with no over-all cap on the amount of credit that a country could claim for sinks activities. In the case of forest management, an Appendix Z establishes country-specific caps for each Annex I country, for example, a cap of 13 million tons could be credited to Japan (which represents about 4% of its base-year emissions). For cropland management, countries could receive credit only for carbon sequestration increases above 1990 levels.
3. Compliance: ­ Final action on compliance procedures and mechanisms that would address non-compliance with Protocol provisions was deferred to COP-7 but included broad outlines of consequences for failing to meet emissions targets that would include a requirement to "make up" shortfalls at 1.3 tons to 1, suspension of the right to sell credits for surplus emissions reductions; and a required compliance action plan for those not meeting their targets.
4. Financing: ­Three new funds were agreed upon to provide assistance for needs associated with climate change: a fund for climate change that supports a series of climate measures, a least-developed-country fund to support National Adaptation Programs of Action, and a Kyoto Protocol adaptation fund supported by a CDM levy and voluntary contributions.

COP-7, Marrakesh, Morocco (2001)

The major product of this COP were operational details for ratification and implementation of the Kyoto Protocol.  The completed package of decisions is known as the Marrakesh Accords. The main decisions at COP-7 included:

• Operational rules for international emissions trading among parties to the Protocol and for the CDM and joint implementation;
• A compliance regime that outlines consequences for failure to meet emissions targets but defers to the parties to the Protocol after it is in force to decide whether these consequences are legally binding;
• Accounting procedures for the flexibility mechanisms;
• A decision to consider at COP-8 how to achieve a review of the adequacy of commitments that might move toward discussions of future developing country commitments.

COP-11, Montreal, Canada (2005)

Canada hosted the first Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol in Montreal in conjunction with the eleventh session of the Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention. This meeting marked the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol.  At Montreal, the first ever Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Protocol (CMP) ran parallel to the COP.  The United Nations Climate Change Conference was the largest intergovernmental climate conference since the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997 with an estimated 10,000 participants.⁹   The conference also attracted unprecedented business interest as a result of two operation trading systems: the pan-European emissions trading scheme and the Clean Development Mechanism, a tool to promote sustainable development and combat climate change.  The COP agreed on future critical steps to tackle climate change and closed with the adoption of more than forty decisions intended to strengthen global efforts to fight climate change.

COP-13, Bali, Indonesia (2007)

The Bali Road Map, the major product of this COP, is an agreement outlining negotiations for a new global climate treaty following the expiration of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012. It represents the summation of negotiations at the 2007 UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia. Participating countries, including the United States, agreed on a series of steps that could be implemented immediately to strengthen their commitment to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). These measures include, but are not limited to, combating deforestation in poor countries, scaling up investment in green technology, and enhancing funding for adaptation measures. Details on future emissions targets for a post-Kyoto period were not included. The details of the future climate change negotiating process, the Bali Action Plan, are to be completed over four major UNFCCC meetings culminating with a 2009 summit in Copenhagen, Denmark.¹⁰ Thus the final conference in Copenhagen, taking place from December 7 through December 18, 2009, is expected to achieve a final agreement on a post- Kyoto framework to combat climate change.