Climate change, the demand for action

If you know how the United Nations is organising the battle to limit climate change then just skip the next bit.

Because I was getting confused about what is going on I did a bit of surfing.

IPCC  is the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. They have just had a meeting in Kampala. It was identified as the 34th Session from 14th to 19th November.  They are working to produce their Fifth Assessment Report, AR5. Due for completion in 2014. Their previous report called AR4 was released in 2007.  The IPCC produces assessment reports for the FCCC.

The FCCC is the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Set up in 1992 at the so called Earth Summit in Rio De Janeiro. That led to the Kyoto Protocol.

 The FCCC works in parallel with the IPCC.  It progresses through COP's (short for  Conference of the Parties). Their COP17 is currently in progress in Durban , South Africa.  26th Nov to 7th Dec.

Reports from Durban talk about AEOSIS which is the Alliance of Small Island States with 39 members and LDC's which are the 48 Least Developed Countries. This combined grouping of countries is about 50% of the total UN membership and they want action to start on Jan 1st 2012.

They are now confronted by the rest, some of whom also qualify as LDC's including India, Brazil and China who don't want action before 2020.

To find our what the situation is in the Conference you can find reports on the BBC Environment pages and no doubt else where.

If I've missed anything important don't hesitate to tell me!  Click here for a link to the BBC. Wiki is very good also.