The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change—The Basis for the Climate Change Regime

Abstract

Abstract This chapter delves deeper into the development and structural organization of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which forms the basis of the climate change regime. As a framework, the Convention urges action to preserve human safety where risks are high even in the face of scientific uncertainty. Its overarching aim, however, is not to reverse the greenhouse effect but rather, to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. The Convention establishes a number of institutions to further its work: a Conference of the Parties (COP) that makes decisions necessary to promote the effective implementation of the Convention, a Permanent Secretariat, and two subsidiary bodies: the Subsidiary Body for Scientific and Technological Advice (SBSTA) and the Subsidiary Body for Implementation (SBI).