A global climate regime is a global framework that aims at regulating the interaction of human activity with the

global climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorological ...

system, to mitigate

global climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

. The framework for such a regime was developed by the

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) established an international environmental treaty to combat "dangerous human interference with the climate system", in part by stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in ...

, or UNFCCC for short.

History

After the adoption of the

in 1992, which established the objective of avoiding dangerous human interference with the global climate system, governments' negotiation efforts have focused on operationalizing this goal. The first legally binding result has been the Kyoto Protocol which was agreed upon in 1997 and came into force in 2005, with its First Commitment Period in effect from 2008 to 2012. The 2009 deadline for reaching a post-Kyoto agreement, established at COP13 in Bali in 2007 was missed, and since the end of 2012, the voluntary emissions reductions commitments from the

Copenhagen Accord The Copenhagen Accord is a document which delegates at the 15th session of the Conference of Parties (COP 15) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change agreed to "take note of" at the final plenary on 18 December 2009. The Accor ...

have become the ''

de facto ''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...

'' global climate regime. In 2015, the Paris Agreement was signed, cementing its place as the global climate regime. It requires countries to submit Nationally determined contributions in the form of plans to reduce emissions, and update their plans every five years at a

global stocktake The Global Stocktake is a fundamental component of the Paris Agreement which is used to monitor its implementation and evaluate the collective progress made in achieving the agreed goals. The Global Stocktake thus links implementation of nationally ...

. Under the Paris climate regime, all countries have signed on to the goal of net balance between sources and sinks of

greenhouse gases A greenhouse gas (GHG or GhG) is a gas that absorbs and emits radiant energy within the thermal infrared range, causing the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere are water vapor (), carbon dioxide (), methane ...

in the second half of the 21st century. The goal is holding the increase in temperatures to "well below" 2 degrees Celsius, and "pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels." In 2021, at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, the

Glasgow Climate Pact The Glasgow Climate Pact is an agreement reached at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26). The pact is the first climate agreement explicitly planning to reduce unabated coal usage. A pledge to "phase out" coal was change ...

was signed, under which nations agreed to "phase down" the use of

Coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

and take other actions to enhance ambition and reduce emissions.

Issues

Over the last century increasing concentrations of gasses such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have formed a blanket in the atmosphere, creating a greenhouse effect. The warming has brought about a number of significant issues. The Arctic ice is melting, which is causing an increase in the amount of heat retained at the Earth's poles. Deforestation, whether intentional or by

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identi ...

, is affecting the natural filtration of the air. It is also decreasing the surface

albedo Albedo (; ) is the measure of the diffuse reflection of solar radiation out of the total solar radiation and measured on a scale from 0, corresponding to a black body that absorbs all incident radiation, to 1, corresponding to a body that refl ...

of the land, raising global temperatures. Over the last decade many changes in weather patterns have been observed, such as more frequent unusually hot days and nights with less frequent unusually cold days and nights. Droughts have become more common in some areas, and a rainfall level increase in others.

Proposals

Proposals for a global climate regime include: *

Contraction and Convergence Contraction and Convergence (C&C) is a proposed global framework for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change. Conceived by the Global Commons Institute CIin the early 1990s, the Contraction and Convergence strategy consists of ...

Greenhouse Development Rights Greenhouse Development Rights (GDRs) is a justice-based effort-sharing framework designed to show how the costs of rapid climate stabilization can be shared fairly, among all countries. More precisely, GDRs seeks to transparently calculate nationa ...

* Cap and Share *Nishimura's proposal of a global upstream carbon market * WBGU's Budget Approach * Kyoto2 * Earth Atmospheric Trust * Global Climate Certificate System

References

Climate change policy {{climate-change-stub