The challenge of Climate Change.

• Author: Waller-Hunter, Joke
• Position: Looking Forward - United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

On 9 May 1992, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted in New York after tedious negotiations throughout the night, in the best of UN traditions. On 1 May 2002, I took up my position as Executive Secretary of the Convention.

In those ten years, negotiations have continued, often making headlines, e.g. when the Kyoto Protocol that sets out binding commitments for industrialized countries and economies in transition was adopted in 1997 and further elaborated, again through often heated negotiations, in the years thereafter. Negotiators were taken to Buenos Aires, Bonn, The Hague and Marrakech, where final agreement on the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol was reached. Now, we are looking forward to its entry into force. It may be a fair statement that the rule books needed to make both the Convention and the Protocol work are largely in place, and that the focus will now be on implementation.

For us in the UNFCCC secretariat in Bonn, this presents a new challenge--supporting implementation is not the same as supporting negotiations! Quite an interesting challenge: will the rules deliver the required results? How do we measure and assess success?

New mechanisms have been created. They allow countries to meet their commitments in a cost-effective manner through trading emissions, and they enhance international cooperation by encouraging investments in projects in developing countries that aim at both sustainable development and emission reduction. Sharing information, e.g. through national reports and inventories that countries have to provide regularly, documenting and disseminating practices of Governments, business and civil society, maintaining an authoritative database on greenhouse gas emissions, keeping track of the trading--all these will be important elements of the secretariat's work.

Based on the current and foreseeable levels of emissions, there is evidence that some amount of climate change is inevitable. Countries, especially those most vulnerable which are often the least developed, must start preparing for adaptation.

Facilitating international cooperation among...