Climate change is now widely recognized as the major environmental problem facing the globe. Addressing climate change is central to the work of the United Nations. The threat that climate change poses to peace, security and sustainable development led UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to make climate change - what he calls “the defining challenge of our age” - one of the priorities for the UN system. For more than two decades UNEP has played a key role in United Nations efforts to address climate change and increase awareness among governments, the scientific and business communities, and the general public.
Evidence is building that impacts are being felt in the form of melting icecaps in the polar areas and increased variability of temperature, rainfall and storms in virtually all regions. The scientific consensus underpinning the rising political and public recognition of the climate problem has been captured in the recent reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - established by UNEP and the World Meteorological Organization in 1988. The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4) clearly states that it is no longer relevant to discuss whether the climate is changing but rather how much change we are committed to and how fast this will occur.
Assessments by the IPCC underpinned negotiations for the Kyoto Protocol, and continue to provide the foundation for global decision making on climate change within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). UNEP supports the UNFCCC process in a variety of ways, and will continue to support the Parties to the UNFCCC as they work to put in place a future climate agreement that helps to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions while at the same time providing finance, technology and support for developing country adaptation and mitigation needs.