Essential Background

Essential Background

The Convention and the Protocol

Over a decade ago, most countries joined an international treaty -- the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) -- to begin to consider what can be done to reduce global warming and to cope with whatever temperature increases are inevitable. More recently, a number of nations approved an addition to the treaty: the Kyoto Protocol, which has more powerful (and legally binding) measures. The UNFCCC secretariat supports all institutions involved in the climate change process, particularly the COP, the subsidiary bodies and their Bureau.

This section contains numerous resources -- for beginners or experts -- such as introductory and in-depth publications, the official UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol texts and a search engine to the UNFCCC library.

Kyoto Protocol -- What it means

The Kyoto Protocol, an international and legally binding agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, entered into force on 16 February 2005.

Interactive map and reporting system for the CDM
The CDM project map shows the location of CDM activities worldwide. Visitors can travel around the globe and learn about the location and many details of each project. In addition to this, a series of new graphs provide detailed breakdowns about the range, distribution of such projects that highlight national participation, project impacts and the status of project registration.
For more information, visit the CDM project map or reports.