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International agreement on climate change

Ferrybridge power station. View of electricity pylons and chimneys

Climate change is caused by emissions from human activities all around the world and so it needs to be tackled on a global scale. The latest science on climate change makes it very clear that serious harm is likely to occur to both people and wildlife if the world’s average surface temperature rises to more 2°C above pre-industrial levels. 

Indeed, we are now experiencing adverse impacts to people and wildlife because of the 0.7 - 0.8° rise that has already occurred. It will be virtually impossible to avoid a rise of nearly 2°C - download our document Keeping below 2 degrees for more information.

To keep below this level will require global emissions to peak in about 2015, or before, and then decline steeply at about 3% each year. 

Highly developed countries must take the lead

Because the highly developed countries are responsible for the bulk of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and also have the bulk of the world’s financial and technical resources, they will have to take the lead in reducing emissions. This principle is embodied in the UN Climate Change Convention to which almost all countries belong.

Rapidly developing countries must limit their emissions

However, if large, rapidly developing countries do not at least limit their emissions growth in the near future, it will not be possible to limit global average temperature rise to below 2°C - download our document Limiting international emissions for more information.

  • Current emission reduction commitments in the Kyoto Protocol are not enough.
  • Agreement from the rapidly industrialising countries of China, India, Brazil and South Africa is vital.
  • Both developed and developing countries need to limit their emissions to keep global temperature rise to near safe levels

In fact, it are only a few, large, rapidly industrialising countries that matter in terms of limiting climate change and that therefore need to limit their emissions.

These are China, India, Brazil and South Africa. China and India are needed mainly because they are such large countries and, although their per capita emissions are quite low, their total emissions are huge. China’s emissions are already more than those of the EU. Brazil and South Africa not only have high emissions as countries but quite high per capita emissions too. 

If emissions from deforestation are counted, Brazil’s per capita emissions are higher than Germany or the UK and South Africa’s are higher than Italy or France.

Options for reducing emissions

In Montreal in 2005, parties to the UN Climate Change Convention agreed to start negotiations on developing country commitments to reduce their emissions after 2012. That year is important because it’s when the current set of commitments under the Kyoto Protocol expire, and a new period of Kyoto commitments would be due to begin. 

A key task for the Climate Convention/Kyoto Protocol meeting in Nairobi in November 2006 will be to begin to work out how the big, rapidly industrialising countries can limit their emissions, whilst having the right to develop.

One way forward might be for developing countries to commit to limit their emissions from a particular sector, such as electricity generation, and then be allowed to trade allowances from that commitment in the Kyoto Protocol’s emissions trading scheme. This could provide large sums of money from clean development. 

A group of countries led by Papua New Guinea and Costa Rica have already made a proposal for such a sectoral commitment under which they would limit tropical deforestation, which accounts for about 20% of global emissions.

Last modified: 09 August 2006

Downloads

Keeping below 2 degrees (347Kb)
An outline of how dangerous climate change can be avoided.
Limiting international emissions (53Kb)
The RSPB's proposal for how international emissions can be limited.
How much to cut emissions? (20Kb)
Factsheet