The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UCNFCC), the world’s first climate change treaty, is 30 years old. It was adopted on 9 May 1992 and opened for signature at the Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro on 4 June 1992. Should the world be celebrating? Looking back Personally, I take…
This is a brief abstract of an article with the same title authored by Richard Kinley and published in IPPR Progressive Review, Institute of Public Policy Research, 2022 – link to the full article here. The UN Climate Conference held last November in Glasgow, known as COP 26, delivered a useful pact to accelerate action towards…
This Saturday, on 27th March 2021, we mark the 15th annual Earth Hour. At 8:30pm local time, participants across the world will turn off all non-essential lights in their homes and offices in an effort to draw attention to the ongoing climate crisis that is ravaging our planet. The event first took place in Sydney,…
On Sunday, 14 December 2014, representatives of all UN member countries and the European Union managed to agree on the “Lima Call for Climate Action”. This was the most important result of two weeks of exhausting deliberations at the conference but also before. If one reads the three-and-a-half pages of this decision one will see many repetitions of code words that may not mean much to non-negotiators. The question easily arises: is all this diplomatic commotion of any use? How is it connected, if at all, to the real world of climate impacts and much-needed climate action?…
