NEGOTIATOR- July 96 Climate updates

The climate for a change

Jul 15, 1996

Are the nations of the world serious in their much-touted efforts to control
greenhouse gas emissions? VINAYAK RAO examines the motives, moods and manifestoes in the run-up to the forthcoming climate change conference in Geneva

THE stage is set for thesecond Conference of Parties(cop-2) to the UnitedNations FrameworkConvention on Climate Change(UNFCCC)slated forJuly 8-191in GenevaSwitzerland. It may berecalled that the FrameworkConvention on ClimateChange (Fccc) signed at theEarth Summit in Rio in1992had called upon theindustrialised nations toreduce their carbon dioxide(C02) emissions to 1990levels by the year2000This commitment was recognised as only a firstmodest step towardssubstantialreductions in emissions ofgreenhouse gases (GHG) -gases which trap heat insidethe atmosphere.

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For a better tomorrow
Author: Manjula Balakrishnan
Aug 15, 1996

Unlike the first United Nations conference on climate change, the recently concluded second meet was marked by a desire to give the planet a second chance

It was Geneva's turn this time to play host to another meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (ipcc), the second Conference of Parties (cop-2), between July 8-19, 1996. The agenda of the meet, attended by 150 countries, was straightforward: to evaluate the progress made since cop-1, which was held in Berlin, Germany, in 1995, where the Berlin Mandate was drawn up ( Down To Earth , Vol 5, No 4), and to achieve an overall consensus on specific emission reductions of all greenhouse gases (ghg)

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