Introduction to the Climate Change Conference

Climate Change Conferences An introduction to the United Nations and Climate Change Conferences What is the United Nations? What has the UN done to combat climate change so far?

What is the United Nations? The United Nations (UN) started in 1945. At the end of the Second World War, 51 countries signed the UN charter and became the first UN members. The UK was one of them. They hoped to prevent future conflicts, by talking and negotiation between countries, and acting together. Today there are 193 UN member states. A UN poster from 1945 This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

National flags outside the UN Headquarters in New York This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY António Guterres, the UN Secretary General This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA The UN has its main headquarters in New York, USA. António Guterres of Portugal is the Secretary General – the UN’s spokesperson. The UN gives countries a way to come together to discuss global issues, such as climate change, and find solutions to them.

The UN’s four main aims are to: keep international peace and security The UN General Assembly Hall in New York, USA. The UN’s four main aims are to: keep international peace and security develop friendly relationships among nations solve international problems through cooperation be a centre where nations can work together. This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC

What has the UN done to combat climate change so far? The UN has focused on reducing carbon emissions in order to tackle climate change. In 2010, governments agreed to reduce emissions so that global temperature increases are limited to 2°C. Pupils could describe the pattern on the graph. What do they notice about the change in carbon emissions over time? This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY

Changing global temperatures since 1850. The graph shows the difference between the temperature we would normally expect and the actual temperature This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA

The International Panel on Climate Change is set up. 1988 1992 1979 1995 The International Panel on Climate Change is set up. The Earth Summit is held in Rio. The first world climate change conference takes place. The first Conference of the Parties (COP1) takes place in Berlin. The Copenhagen accord is drafted at COP15. The Kyoto protocol comes into force. COP 21 reached a climate agreement The Kyoto protocol is adopted at COP3. For a full list of timeline events see http://www.un.org/climatechange/towards-a-climate-agreement/. Individual pupils could be given aspects such as the IPCC, the Earth Summit, the Kyoto protocol, the Copenhagen accord etc to research and provide a summary for other pupils. A ten-minute BBC radio programme ‘Witness’ on the World Service describes the negotiations behind the Kyoto protocol. 2009 2005 2015 1997

The 2017 Conference of Parties was held in Bonn, Germany What is happening in Poland? The 24th annual Conference of Parties or COP24 is happening in Katowice, Poland on 3rd December 2018. In 2015 the UN conference in Paris reached agreement to keep global warming below 2°C and prevent runaway climate change. The UN’s aim in 2018 is to hold countries to their agreements to reduce their CO2 emissions. That will help the world move to a low-carbon future. This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA The 2017 Conference of Parties was held in Bonn, Germany