United Nations
From ClimateWiki
The United Nations (UN) has a whole firmly believes in the global warming theory - that current human actions create rapidly increasing greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to the dangerously increasing temperature of the Earth. Therefore, its focus has largely been taking action to curb man-made effects on the environment. The following is an outline of UN action in global warming efforts.
UN Efforts to Combat Climate Change
The UN has been heavily involved in anti-global warming efforts.
In 1992, the UN “Earth Summit” produced the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) as a first step in tackling the problem.
In 1998, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) set up the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in hopes of providing an objective source of scientific information. Additionally, the Convention’s 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which set emission reduction targets for industrialized countries, has supposedly already began to stabilize and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in several countries.
In 2007, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to former United States Vice-President Al Gore and the IPCC "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change".
Also, the Copenhagen Accord was agreed to by Heads of State, Heads of Government, Ministers and other heads of delegation at the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009.
The Cancún Agreement was agreed to at the Conference in Cancun Mexico in December 2010.
In 2011, the Conference will be held in Bangkok where the focus will be on creating a "clear work plan" - making the institutions for climate funding, technology cooperation and adaptation, fully functional within the deadlines agreed in the Cancun Agreement.
Criticism
The UN has been criticized for supposedly excluding "civil society" from climate change decisions.
For example, the Subsidiary Body on Implementation (SBI) met in Germany in June 2010 to "address the question of 'civil society' participation." To open the process to increase civil society participation has long been a demand of climate justice groups working in this process—considered the most closed and restricted of the various UN processes.
According to Anne Petterman, reporter for Climate and Capitalism who was in attendance, that was not actually the case:
"The topic was not raised to increase participation, but to try to avoid the 'problems' of Copenhagen. They discussed, among other things, how to prevent unpermitted protest at the Climate COP in Cancun this coming December; how to restrict the participation of civil society groups in the negotiations; and how to ensure that no Parties (participating countries) include civil society groups on their delegations. The question of corporate representatives being included in Party delegations, however, was not an issue. And as the final slap in the face, the civil society representative that had been selected by Climate Justice Now! to present an ‘intervention’ (short statement) regarding civil society’s thoughts on the question of participation was prevented from giving the statement they had been promised. The Chair of the session simply refused to call on them. This is a clear signal to those of us comprising so-called “civil society” that we shall have no role, not even a symbolic one, in the 'official' process defining the way forward on climate change mitigation."
References
"United Nations Global Issues." Welcome to the United Nations: It's Your World. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. <http://www.un.org/en/globalissues/climatechange/index.shtml>.
"UN Climate Chief Says Time for Work on Cancun Deal - Yahoo! News." The Top News Headlines on Current Events from Yahoo! News. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. <http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/unclimatewarming>.
"UN Plans Exclusion of Critics and Criticism from Climate Talks." Climate and Capitalism. Web. 29 Mar. 2011. <http://climateandcapitalism.com/?p=2550>.
