From negotiation to implementation

This chapter focuses on the intergovernmental climate change regime through which governments have coordinated their response to the threat of humaninduced climate change. The foundation of this regime is the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, adopted in 1992. The first decade of the climate change regime has seen an intense period of ‘rule-making’ negotiations aimed at further developing its commitments and institutions. These negotiations have followed a twin-track. Along the first track, governments have elaborated in more detail on the Convention’s provisions, building up an extensive ‘rulebook’ for its implementation. Along the second, more high profile track, governments have negotiated substantively new and stronger commitments, leading to the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in December 1997 and to subsequent negotiations to define the Protocol’s operational details. Both negotiating tracks culminated in agreement on the so-called ‘Marrakech Accords’ in October/November 2001, setting out a comprehensive set of rules for both the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol. The adoption of the landmark Marrakech Accords signals a shift in the focus of the climate change regime from negotiation to implementation, not withstanding the continued delay in entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol.