Environment: Call for agreement to replace Kyoto Protocol - timeline
Searching more than 75 years of world history
- April 2009. Negotiations on the successor to the Kyoto Protocol are hailed as a success by Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
- March 2009. The president of the Maldives, Mohammed Nasheed, announces a plan to make the country carbon neutral by 2020. The Maldives are threatened with widespread inundation due to rising sea levels triggered by global warming.
- December 2008. The Kyoto signatories set up the Adaptation Fund to help developing countries deal with the effects of climate change.
- November 2008. UN data shows a decrease in carbon emissions of 0.1 per cent between 2005 and 2006.
- August 2008. Brazil launches an initiative to protect the Amazon rainforest to prevent climate change and preserve biodiversity. The campaign aims to raise US$21 billion of overseas investment.
- July 2008. The environment ministers of the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) agree a five-year plan on climate change. This is motivated, at least in part, by the threat climate change poses to sustainable development.
- December 2007. A summit is held in Bali, Indonesia to discuss options for a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol. Australia ratifies the Kyoto protocol leaving the USA as the only industrialised country to fail to do so.
- April 2007. The UN Security Council discusses the security implications of climate change.
- March 2007. A US-Dutch study finds that the phasing out of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) to protect the ozone layer has also reduced the rate of global warming.
- October 2006. The Stern Report, a study into the economics of climate change, is published for the UK government. It finds that the cost of prevention of and adaption to climate change is far smaller than proceeding with "business as usual".
- September 2006. Separate studies by NASA and other scientists conclude that global warming is accelerating.
- February 2006. At an academic conference sponsored by the UK government a leading scientist reports that the levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere may already be high enough to push the climate past a "tipping point" into uncontrollable environmental consequences.
- December 2005. Signatories to the Kyoto Protocol meet in Montreal to discuss options for curbing greenhouse gas emissions after the expiry of the Portocol in 2012.
- July 2005. The G-8 (Group of Seven Industrialised Countries, and Russia) meets at Gleneagles to devise a common strategy for combating climate change and increasing aid to Africa.
- April 2005. The British Antarctic Survey finds that glaciers in the Antarctic have shrunk significantly over the past 50 years and the decline is accelerating.
- October 2004. Russia ratifies the Kyoto Protocol, allowing the treaty to come into effect.
- May 2004. A leading environmentalist, James Lovelock, calls for investment in nuclear power as the only practical method of combating climate change.
- December 2003. Russian President Vladimir Putins spokesman states that Russia will not ratify the Kyoto Protocol as it would be detrimental to economic growth. Russian ratification would allow the treaty to come into effect.
- July 2003. The World Meteorological Association states that the frequency of extreme weather events is at a record level and global warming will likely push it higher.
- June 2002. The number of states ratifying the Kyoto Protocol reaches 70, exceeding the 55 required for it to come into effect. The second condition for activation, that the ratifying members represent 55 per cent of the industrialised worlds emissions, is not yet reached.
- March 2002. The EU agrees to be legally bound by the Kyoto Protocol, bringing implementation closer.
- February 2002. George W. Bush, the US president, outlines a "common sense" policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through a system of tax credits to encourage voluntary reductions by US industry.
- July 2001. An agreement is reached to implement the Kyoto Protocol despite the US governments withdrawal form the agreement. The plan allows the implementation of a weakened version of the Kyoto Protocol.
- June 2001. The Red Cross publishes a report showing the frequency of natural disasters is increasing. The report blamed this on the increasing frequency of extreme weather events, a consequence of global warming.
- March 2001. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) completes the release of its third assessment report laying out its predictions for future climate change. It concludes that cost-effective solutions to climate change exist but governments must overcome "institutional and behavioural barriers".
- December 2000. Talks in Ottawa, Canada, fail to salvage negotiations on implementing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol which had failed in November.
- November 2000. The UN World Conference on Climate Change at The Hague fails to produce a compromise between the USA and the EU on greenhouse gas cuts.
- June 2000. The Pew Centre, a US charity, finds that the USA and most European countries are not on track to meet their obligations under the Kyoto Protocol.
- November 1999. At a conference in Bonn, Germany, representatives of 173 countries agree various technical points on the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol which remains inoperative.
- October 1999. US President Bill Clinton calls for action on climate change at the UN but the US makes no moves to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
- June 1999. The IPCC calls for a reduction in air travel to counter the increasing contribution of aircraft exhaust gasses to global warming.
- November 1998. A conference on implementation mechanisms for the Kyoto protocol results in controversy over the level of carbon trading to allow.
- December 1997. The Kyoto Protocol is agreed. The agreement sets binding emissions reduction targets for its signatories. The agreement is condemned as too weak by many environmental groups but is too stringent to pass the US Senate.
- July 1996. At a conference in Geneva the USA agrees to a declaration calling for "quantified legally binding objectives for emission limitations and significant overall reductions within specified timeframes". Objections are lodged by several producers of fossil fuels including Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela.
- December 1995. The IPCC predicts that by 2100 temperatures would rise by 2C and sea levels by 50 cm.
- April 1995. A UN climate change conference in Berlin fails to agree new targets to further cut greenhouse gas emissions. Island countries at particular risk from climate change and environmental groups decry the conference as a missed opportunity.
- December 1993. The 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change reaches the 50 ratifications needed to bring it into force.
- June 1992. The Framework Convention on Climate Change is signed by 154 countries at the Rio Earth Summit. The binding treaty requires signatories to limit their emissions of greenhouse gasses.
- April 1992. Preliminary talks before the Rio Summit fail to reach agreement.
- January 1992. The IPCC declares itself more certain than ever of the reality of global warming and predicts future temperature rises of 0.2 to 0.5 degrees centigrade per decade.
- July 1991. The South Pacific Forum calls for "significant and immediate reductions in emissions of industrially generated greenhouse gases, particularly carbon dioxide". The members of the forum include low lying island countries that could be submerged if sea levels rise significantly.
- June 1991. The eruption of Mount Pinatubo releases debris into the atmosphere which reflects solar energy back into space. This cools the Earth and reverses global warming for two years.
- November 1990. At a conference in Geneva 137 countries sign an agreement acknowledging the reality of climate change and pledging to take steps to deal with it.
- April 1990. At a climate change conference at the White House President Bush calls for more research before taking action on climate change and emphasises the need for economic considerations to be included in planning.
- February 1990. The IPCC reaches an agreement on the likely affects of burning fossil fuels and deforestation. Temperature increases and sea level rises are predicted.
- November 1989. The governments of 70 countries agree to freeze their carbon dioxide emission levels "as soon as possible".
- July 1989. The G-7 calls for the establishment of a global reference network to detect climate change.
- May 1989. The US government states that, on climate change, it is "committed to a framework convention that is properly prepared and fully inclusive of the rest of the world". This contrasts with early statements questioning the evidence for climate change.
- July 1989. The G-7 group of industrialised countries agree to support a framework convention on climate change.
- February 1979. Climate change receives worldwide attention when the First World Climate Conference calls on governments to prevent climate change.
- 1957. Roger Revelle, an oceanographer, warns that humanity is conducting a "large scale geophysical experiment" on the Earths climate.
- 1906. It is predicted that the increasing proportion of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will prevent a new ice age by raising global temperatures.
- 1863. The ability of carbon dioxide, water vapour, and nitrogen to absorb infra-red radiation, and thereby contribute to climate change, is measured by Irish physicist John Tyndall.
- 1824. French mathematician and physicist Joseph Fourier publishes the first paper linking the composition of gasses in the atmosphere to global temperatures.
