Background on the UNFCCC

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an international treaty agreed at the 1992 ‘Earth Summit’ in Rio de Janeiro. Its objective is to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that prevents dangerous levels of man-made climate change. There are 198 signatories (referred to as Parties) to the UNFCCC. The initial objective of the UNFCCC was to establish national benchmark figures for greenhouse gas emissions, with a base year of 1990.

The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the decision-making body of the Convention. It meets annually, unless Parties decide otherwise, to assess progress in dealing with climate change.

For more information, see Practice Note: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 1992—snapshot.

The Paris Agreement, entered into at the Paris Summit in 2015, was the culmination of years of global effort by the Parties to the