UN Framework

As of 2019 nearly all countries in the world are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).^[227] The objective of the Convention is to prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system.^[228] As stated in the Convention, this requires that greenhouse gas concentrations are stabilized in the atmosphere at a level where ecosystems can adapt naturally to climate change, food production is not threatened, and economic development can be sustained.^[229] The Framework Convention was agreed on in 1992, but global emissions have risen since then.^[230] Its yearly conferences are the stage of global negotiations.^[231]

During these negotiations, the G77 (a lobbying group in the United Nations representing developing countries)^[232] pushed for a mandate requiring developed countries to "[take] the lead" in reducing their emissions.^[233] This was justified on the basis that the developed countries' emissions had contributed most to the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, per-capita emissions were still relatively low in developing countries, and the emissions of developing countries would grow to meet their development needs.^[234]

This mandate was sustained in the 2005 Kyoto Protocol to the Framework Convention.^[235] In ratifying the Kyoto Protocol, most developed countries accepted legally binding commitments to limit their emissions. These first-round commitments expired in 2012.^[236] United States President George W. Bush rejected the treaty on the basis that "it exempts 80% of the world, including major population centres such as China and India, from compliance, and would cause serious harm to the US economy".^[237] In 2009 several UNFCCC Parties produced the Copenhagen Accord,^[238] which has been widely portrayed as disappointing because of its low goals, leading poor nations to reject it.^[239] Parties associated with the Accord aim to limit the future increase in global mean temperature to below 2 °C.^[240]

Countries by Climate change performance Index

In 2015 all UN countries negotiated the Paris Agreement, which aims to keep climate change well below 2 °C. The agreement replaced the Kyoto Protocol. Unlike Kyoto, no binding emission targets are set in the Paris Agreement. Instead, the procedure of regularly setting ever more ambitious goals and reevaluating these goals every five years has been made binding.^[241] The Paris Agreement reiterated that developing countries must be financially supported.^[242] As of September 2019 there were 197 Parties to the treaty, of which 165 are Signatories.^[243] In June 2017 the Trump Administration announced an intention to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, with immediate cessation of implementation, but is legally obligated to remain until November 2020.^[244]