Milestones
The issue of climate change was moved in the 1970s with concern from the scientific level to political platforms. In the year 1992, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which was signed by 154 countries, came into force at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro. The main purpose of this convention was to stabilize the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to a point where it could not cause dangerous changes in the climate system. According to the agreement, developed countries would play a leading role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, while financial support would be provided for developing countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.
Within the scope of the agreement signed in 1992 and entered into force in 1994, the Kyoto Protocol was signed in the third of the Conference of the Parties (Conferens of the Parties, or COP for short), which started to convene in 1997, and thus the parties took the first restriction decisions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The protocol was only put into effect in 2005 due to the ratification process. The first target set for 2008-2012 was announced as reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 5% compared to 1990 levels.
Paris Agreement
Since the Kyoto Protocol will expire in 2020, the parties meeting for the 21st time in Paris in 2015 (COP21) accepted the Paris Agreement. The aim of the agreement was to limit global warming to 2°C to avoid dangerous climate change that could occur in the long run. To this end, the 190 countries that are party to the agreement would work in coordination with each other to limit the global average temperature increase to 2°C based on the pre-industrial period in the long run, and would reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause the temperature increase to an amount that could be digested by nature itself in the long run. Developed countries would support developing countries in order to improve their financial, technical and capacities when needed.
The way for a country to be accepted as a party to the Paris Agreement is to submit a Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC). NDCs are letters of intent presented to the parties on how each country will reduce its national greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to the effects of climate change.
