Climate Summits Held by the World Leaders

Environmental issues, or what we refer to as climate change, were not an important concern for the United Nations after it was created. For the duration of 23 years, the limits of actions that were taken were just mere operational activities. The conferences that are held every year today are known as the United Nations Climate Change Conferences. These conferences are formal meetings attended by the parties of UNFCCC so that they can evaluate the progress they made in dealing with climate change. Berlin held the first meeting in 1995.

UNFCCC

President George H.W. Bush and many other world leaders together joined the 1992 Rio Earth Summit so that they could adopt various international environmental agreements. Later on, UNFCCC was approved by the president and virtually every nation accepted the agreement. The UNFCCC had set long term goals to avoid any hazardous human interference with the climate system. For that, the agreement:

• Asks all the nations to take necessary steps in order to alleviate greenhouse gas emissions.
• Establishes the code of ‘common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities’. It means that countries may have different capacities in their contributions toward climate change and similarly, their duties may vary.
• Requests the developed countries to provide assistance to developing countries in the reduction of emissions and coping with the impacts of climate change.

Kyoto protocol

At the conference of parties in 1995, the UNFCCC parties decided to speed up climate efforts by initiating negotiations for the first sub-agreement. The members agreed that new mandatory targets and timetables would be made to reduce the emissions by developed countries, however there were no new commitments for developing countries.

At the conference of parties in 1997, the resultant Kyoto Protocol was adopted by the members. Mainly, by the persistence of the United States, there were a number of flexible or market-based mechanisms integrated with the agreement that enabled the developed countries to use various forms of emissions substitution so that they can reach their targets more efficiently.

World Environment Day

World Environment Day is observed on 5th June every year. It is celebrated to create awareness about environmental protection and encourage people to make the right choices. Every year, the World Environment Day theme is different. The 2019 theme and slogan was “Air Pollution”. Every year a different country hosts this day with a different theme. The purpose of a different country hosting it is to focus on the country, assess what environmental challenges it is facing and offer support to tackle the problems.

Moreover, the climate summits that are held by world leaders to raise awareness about ecological issues are nothing but ‘a mere babble of words’. In the year 2011, India was asked to host world environment day by the United Nations Environment Programme. The World Environment Day theme for the year 2011 was ‘Forests: Nature at Your Service’. Forests provide a lot of services to mankind. The theme emphasised on the relation between quality of life and healthy forests and forest ecosystems.

Forests provide many products and services to mankind and they help us in a number of ways. They provide timber, food, shelter, rubber, and medicines. If we are fighting against climate change, forests will provide valuable help in that regard. Forests are responsible for the carbon cycle; they absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen. They are of great help in tackling the situation of global warming which is a result of increased carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases.

The purpose of the climate summits is to raise awareness among nations towards taking necessary steps in reducing the emission of greenhouse gases. It is a very critical time for all nations to make corrective action plans before it is too late. Although an individual approach to tackle this problem may look unimportant, people all over the world together could make a big difference.

Conclusion

Climate change is a grave issue for the world. Many countries are joining hands together to tackle this threat. The UNFCCC continues to hold these conferences to address the issue of climate change and make policies for the developed and developing nations, so that they mitigate the risk of climate change. World Environment Day is observed to raise awareness among citizens regarding climate issues and the protection of the environment. The World Environment Day theme is different every year, so that different issues may be brought to light and necessary plans may be made to resolve the issue or minimise it.