Mitigation legislation and agreements
There are a number of global treaties that seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and Natural England is partnering a variety of stakeholders in UK initiatives to reduce the long-term risks from climate change.
International treaties
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
In 1994, most countries joined an international treaty – the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – to look for ways to reduce climate change and to cope with whatever temperature increases are inevitable.
The Convention set an ultimate objective of stabilising greenhouse gas concentrations within a period of time sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change. The representatives also wanted to ensure that food production is not threatened and economic development can proceed in a sustainable manner.
The Convention required industrialised countries to regularly update their inventories of greenhouse gas emissions. With a few exceptions, the "base year" for greenhouse gas emissions has been set as 1990.
Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the UNFCCC. It sets binding targets for 37 industrialised countries and the European community to reduce greenhouse gas emissions over the five-year period from 2008 to 2012. These cuts add up to an average of five per cent below1990 emission levels.
The Kyoto Protocol was negotiated in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997, but it did not come into force until 2005. So far, 183 countries within the Convention have ratified the Protocol.
The Protocol places a heavier burden on developed nations to reduce emissions. This is because they are principally responsible for the current high levels of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, as a result of more than 150 years of industrial activity.
The Kyoto Protocol is widely seen as an important first step towards a truly global emission reduction regime that will stabilize greenhouse gas emissions. It provides the essential framework for any future international agreement on climate change.
By 2012 a new international framework needs to have been agreed, which can deliver the tough emission reductions the IPCC has recommended.
UK legislation
Climate Change Act 2008
For the first time anywhere in the world, the UK has introduced a long-term legally binding framework to tackle the dangers of climate change.
The Climate Change Act 2008 sets the UK's targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through domestic and international action by at least 26 per cent by 2020 and at least 80 per cent by 2050, against the 1990 baseline.
Five-year carbon budgets will set binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions, ensuring every year’s emissions count. These budgets will be backed by strong annual accountability and independent scrutiny.
A Committee on Climate Change is being set up as an independent, expert body to advise the Government on how to achieve the 2050 target.
