THE GLOBAL EFFORT

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 EARTH SUMMIT 1992
The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development,
also known as the Earth Summit (or, in Portuguese, Eco '92) was
a major conference held in Rio de Janeiro from June 3 to June
14, 1992.172 governments participated with 110 at level of
heads of State or Government
The issues addressed included:
• systematic scrutiny of patterns of production — production of toxic
components, such as lead in gasoline, or poisonous waste
• alternative sources of energy to replace the use of fossil fuels linked
to global climate change
• new reliance on public transportation systems in order to reduce
vehicle emissions, congestion in cities and the health problems
caused by polluted air and smog
• the growing scarcity of water
The Earth Summit 1992 resulted in the following
documents:
• Rio Declaration on Environment and Development
• Agenda 21
• Convention on Biological Diversity
• Forest Principles
• Framework Convention on Climate Change

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 UNFCCC 1992

• A global legal instrument on the control and

management of greenhouse gases (GHGs) not
controlled by the Montreal Protocol
• Adopted in 1992; entered into force in 1994
• Aim: stabilization of GHG emissions at a level that
would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference
with the climate system
• Principle of “common but differentiated
responsibilities”
• Affiliated instrument: Kyoto Protocol (1997)
 COP 3: Kyoto Protocol 1997
• Adopted in 1997; not yet in force
• Target: An overall reduction of GHG emissions by at least
5% below 1990 levels
• Creates a more detailed and complex regulatory
structure for GHG emissions
• Gives developed country parties “assigned amounts” of
GHGs that they may not exceed in a specified period,
2008-2012
Kyoto Protocol: Sectors, Sources
• Energy
– fuel combustion, fugitive emissions from fuels
• Industrial processes
– mineral products, chemical industry, metal production, other
production etc.
• Solvent and other product use
• Agriculture
• Waste
– solid waste disposal on land, wastewater handling, waste
incineration etc.
• Greenhouse gases (GHGs):
– Carbon dioxide (CO2)
– Methane (CH4)
– Nitrous Oxide (N2O)
– Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)
– Perfluorocarbons (PFCs)
– Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6)
• Importance of each gas is based on Global Warming
Potential (GWP)
 Global Warming potential (GWP)
• Ratio of global warming, from one unit mass of a GHG to that of one unit mass of CO2 over a period
of time
– Carbon dioxide (CO2) 1 [baseline]
– Methane (CH4) 21
– Nitrous oxide (N2O) 310
– HFC-23 11,700
– HFC-125 2,800
– HFC-134a 1,300
– HFC-143a 3,800
– HFC-152a 140
– HFC-227ea 2,900
– HFC-236fa 6,300
– HFC-4310mee 1,300
– CF4 6,500
– C2F6 9,200
– C4F10 7,000
– C6F14 7,400
– SF6 23,900
• The average albedo (reflectivity) of the Earth is about 0.3, which means
that 30% of the incident solar energy is reflected back into space, while
70% is absorbed by the Earth and reradiated as infrared. The planet's
albedo varies from month to month, but 0.3 is the average figure. It also
varies very strongly spatially: ice sheets have a high albedo, oceans low.
The contributions from geothermal and tidal power sources are so small
that they are omitted from the following calculations.

• The 30% reflected energy consists of:

• 6% reflected from the atmosphere

• 20% reflected from clouds
• 4% reflected from the ground (including land, water and ice)
• All of the 70% absorbed energy is eventually reradiated:

• 64% by the clouds and atmosphere

• 6% by the ground
 Land-use, Land-use Change and
Forestry Sector (LULUCF)
• Effective via:
– increasing removal of GHGs through sinks (e.g.
planting trees)
– reducing emissions from sector
(e.g. curbing deforestation)
• Removals from sinks generate removal units (RMUs) and
must be validated and offset by greater emission
cuts/removals else where
• More work being done in this area on methodologies
including examples of good practice guidance
Agenda 21 is a blueprint for
sustainable development into the
21st Century. Its basis was
agreed during the Earth Summit
at Rio in 1992, and signed by 179
Heads of State and
Governments. Is enough being
done to halt Global Warming?
In December of 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was drafted by
the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at
their third annual meeting (COP-3). Information provided
by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
set the level of global CO2 emissions reductions that are
needed in order to prevent further climate change and
the Kyoto Protocol served as an international ‘plan’ for
how to achieve an interim target. The agreed upon
emissions levels set out in the Protocol charge Annex I
countries (industrialized countries) with the responsibility
of reducing their emissions of greenhouse gases “by at
least 5 per cent below 1990 levels in the commitment
period 2008 to 2012”