Figure 66. Some of the major influences and events in
the international development of the climate issue from the time of the
First World Climate Conference (FWCC) and the establishment of the World
Climate Programme (WCP) by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) Eighth
Congress in 1979 through to the Eighth Session of the Conference of the
Parties to the Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP FCCC) in October-November
2002. Following the 1985 Villach Conference, the WMO Tenth Congress authorised
the establishment of the joint WMO-UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme)
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), whose First Assessment
Report(FAR) to the 1990 Second World Climate Conference (SWCC) led to the
establishment of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) for a
Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC). This emerged as a centrepiece
of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED)
which had itself been convened by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)
in response to the report of the UNGA-sponsored Brundtland Commission. The
Villach Conference and the 1988 Toronto Conference on the Changing Atmosphere
provided two of the major links between the development of the climate change
issue and the broader international agenda for sustainable development now
proceeding under the auspices of the Commission for Sustainable Development
(CSD). The Second Assessment Report (SAR) of the IPCC was a key consideration
of the FCCC in the negotiating period leading to the adoption of the Kyoto
Protocol at COP3 in 1997. The IPCC’s Third Assessment Report (TAR) contributed
to finalisation of the Marrakech Accords at COP7 in 2001 and to the ongoing
implementation of the Convention (refer to box on FCCC, p.52). For remaining
acronyms, refer to ‘Acronyms and abbreviations’.
|
