Climate change is a global issue, which means it affects the whole world. It also affects us at a very local level. This means we must take action at the global, regional and national levels. To do this, we need climate policies.

Policies are plans for what to do in a particular situation. They guide decisions and actions to achieve outcomes for that situation. Governments, businesses, organisations and other groups of people can formulate and adopt policies. For example, a government’s national agriculture policy would guide actions related to agriculture in the country. The national policy could then be adapted to become a provincial policy, according to the needs of the province. An organisation can develop an environmental and sustainability policy. Groups of people living in a neighbourhood can develop policies that relate to the management of the neighbourhood — for example, a policy on solid waste management.

Current policies on climate change have evolved alongside the growing understanding that we need to take a sustainable development approach to the world. The global climate policy is closely aligned to the Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDG 13, which focuses on climate action. The global policy timeline in the table below clearly illustrates the way climate change policies have become central to the goal of achieving sustainable development.

Global climate change policy

Adapted from: CARO. (n.d.). Global climate change policy. https://www.caro.ie/knowledge-hub/general-information/climate-change-policies-targets/global-climate-action-policies

Licence: Copyright CARO

Important global climate change processes and agreements

United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change (UNFCCC): Almost all the countries in the world are members of this convention. It facilitates climate change negotiations between countries to find a path for mitigating and adapting to climate change and observes the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, Paris Agreement and other international climate commitments.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC): This is the United Nations body that provides policymakers with regular scientific updates on climate change.

COP (Conference of Parties): This is the conference at which countries meet every year to review the implementation of the outcomes of the UNFCCC. In addition to the government representatives who are involved in formal negotiations, various groups such as non-governmental organisations (NGOs), civil society, farmers, Indigenous peoples’ organisations, local government, municipal authorities, women and youth have participated in international negotiations and advocacy.

Kyoto Protocol: This was the first international treaty under the UNFCCC. It was adopted in 1977 and set legally binding targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions. It remains a historic landmark in the international fight against climate change.

Paris Agreement: This was adopted on 12 December 2015, at COP21. It required all countries to reduce their emissions. Governments set targets for their climate actions, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs), with the goal of preventing the global average temperature from rising more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to keep the temperature rise below 1.5°C.

COP27: This conference resulted in an agreement to create the first-ever “loss and damage” fund. Developed countries agreed to fund the loss and damages associated with climate change in less developed/developing countries, which marked a significant step towards climate justice.

Climate justice is a term that recognises that different people and communities experience the impacts of climate change — including social, economic and health impacts — differently. Generally, lower-income communities, children, seniors, women and people with disabilities are likely to be more vulnerable to the impacts and to find it more difficult to recover from them. People and countries that are more seriously impacted are usually also not the ones that caused the emissions responsible for climate change in the first place.

Dedicated funds for mitigation and adaptation actions have been created to support developing countries in reaching their climate-related targets. They include the Global Environment Facility (GEF), Global Climate Fund (GCF), Special Climate Fund (SCCF), Least Developed Countries Fund (LDCF), Adaptation Fund and other funds from UN bodies, national-level programmes and schemes, banks, corporations, etc.