Global

Our Planet
© Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government

As climate change is a global problem it must be addressed at a global level. This is being done primarily through the United Nations Organisation who helped establish the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and who drafted a Convention and Protocol to address the issue. If we do not make significant changes now in our attitude towards climate change, the consequences will be devastating.

Global and national treaties to tackle climate change have been ratified over the last two decades. In 1992 the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was created, and the Kyoto Protocol followed in 1997. During the second Kyoto Protocol commitment period, which runs from 2013 to 2020, Parties committed to reduce GHG emissions by at least 18 percent below 1990 levels. The Paris Agreement in 2015 sets out a global action plan to put the world on track to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2°C.

European Green Deal

To set an ambitious example to the world, the European Union's Green Deal sets out the EU's aims to become the first climate-neutral continent.

The EU states that Climate change and environmental degradation are an existential threat to Europe and the world. To overcome these challenges, Europe needs a new growth strategy that will transform the Union into a modern, resource-efficient and competitive economy, where