Evolution and Key Provisions of the FCCC

The process leading to adoption of the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) began in the late 1980s. It was reinforced by a 1990 report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that underscored the legitimacy of concern over greenhouse warming. The report prompted the United Nations General Assembly to constitute an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee charged with the task of drawing up a framework convention on climate change. The committee's text of the FCCC was adopted—somewhat reluctantly in the case of the Bush administration—by 155 signatories at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development at Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. The convention was transformed into an international treaty in March 1993.

Key provisions of the FCCC include:

• Periodic preparation of national inventories of greenhouse gas emissions and sinks
• Formulation by member countries of strategies for mitigating and adapting to climate change
• Cooperation in promoting development and diffusion of technologies for reducing human-made emissions of greenhouse gases
• Commitment by a party to the convention of developed countries to stabilize net emissions of greenhouse gases at 1990 levels by the year 2000
• Assistance from developed countries to developing countries—financial assistance to meet inventorying responsibilities, technology transfers, and (in some cases) assistance in meeting the costs of adapting to the adverse effects of climate change

A ratifying "Conference of the Parties," which is scheduled to convene in Berlin in March 1995, will assume responsibility for overseeing implementation of the FCCC treaty. An updated IPCC report assessing prospective climate change will no doubt help inform the implementation process. The report, which is slated to appear later in the year, will describe the state of climate science, the possible physical and economic effects of global warming, and the feasibility of mitigation and adaptation strategies.