Climate change defined officially as 'a change in the state of the climate that can be identified among other things by changes in the mean and / or the variability of its properties, and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer' is among major challenges facing countries.
Climate change defined officially as ’a change in the state of the climate that can be identified among other things by changes in the mean and / or the variability of its properties, and that persists for an extended period, typically decades or longer’ is among major challenges facing countries. Negotiations on what became the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) were launched in December 1990 by the UN General Assembly. An Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) was convened to conduct these negotiations and the Convention was adopted on 9 May 1992. It entered into force on 21 March 1994, after receiving the requisite 50 ratifications. To date, 195 countries have submitted their instruments of ratification.
Since the adoption of the Convention, Parties have continued to negotiate in order to agree on decisions and conclusions that will advance its implementation. They have done so first in the INC, and then, since the Convention’s entry into force, in the Conference of the Parties (COP) the supreme governing body of the Convention and its subsidiary bodies, the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI).
The 20th session of the Conference of the Parties and the 10th session of the Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol took place from 1 to 14 December 2014 at Lima in Peru. The key mandate at Peru was for the Parties to prepare a clear draft of a new global climate agreement to be signed in 2015 in Paris. The significance of this Agreement is that it would decide post 2020 action on Climate Change and will be in force for the next two decades.
Mr J M Mauskar, Advisor to ORF and member of the Reconstituted Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change participated in the Lima COP meetings as member of the Indian delegation. He briefed key stakeholders on the proceedings at Lima on 22 December 2014 at the Observer Research Foundation under Chatham House rules. The briefing consisted of three parts: (i) Factual briefing of the proceedings at Lima (ii) Personal thoughts of Mr Mauskar and (iii) Questions & Answers and Comments.
Click here to read the full report of the briefing.
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