- Kyoto Protocol's first commitment period expires
2012This is judgment day, er, year for the original 189 nations that ratified the protocol (or at least the 37 industrialized countries that are required to do anything under it): Will global-warming emissions be 5.2 percent lower than they were in 1990? Will a new fair, ambitious, and binding global treaty be ready to roll? Or will Kyoto have new life breathed into it via new emissions targets in a second commitment period? The suspense is driving us nuts!
- Mexico City climate conference
Dec 2010¡SĂ, another climate conference! The significance (and agenda) of COP16 in Mexico City will largely be determined by what comes out of Copenhagen in December 2009. And how many margaritas negotiators throw back once they get there. ¡OlĂ©!
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- Copenhagen!
Dec 7, 2009 to Dec 18, 2009At COP15 in Copenhagen, Denmark, nations are supposed to sign on to a new global climate deal that would take effect after the Kyoto Protocol's first commitment period expires in 2012 -- but they won't. What will they get done? Find out more from our Copenhagen 101.
- Poznan, Poland climate conference
Dec 1, 2008 to Dec 12, 2008At COP14 in Poznan, Poland, the Parties continue to Conference, but not much else happens. One notable development: discussion of a new program that would have developing nations seeing REDD: Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation. Save the rainforest, save the climate!
- Obama elected president
Nov 4, 2008 12:00 PMBarack Obama is elected president of the United States on a platform of cutting the nation's greenhouse-gas emissions 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Â The international community swoons.
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- IPCC and Al Gore receive Nobel Peace Prize
Dec 2007A Tale of Two Al's: Alfred Nobel's Committee awards Albert Gore -- and more than 2,500 IPCC scientists -- the Nobel Peace Prize "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."
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- Bali climate conference
Dec 3, 2007 to Dec 14, 2007At COP13 in Bali, Indonesia, the talks go into overtime as the U.S. tries to squirm out of specific emissions targets and ultimately gets booed. A delegate from Papua New Guinea lays a verbal smackdown on the U.S.: "Either lead, follow, or get out of the way." Five minutes later, the U.S. agrees to play nice(r), and the Bali Action Plan is adopted, aiming to finish up negotiations and reach agreement on five key pillars by the end of 2009 (read: Copenhagen).
- IPCC climate report: Round 4
Apr 2007In yet another effort by IPCC scientists to tell the world that climate change is (still) real, they release their Fourth Assessment Report. The largest and most tedious, er, detailed compilation on the subject evah, it proclaims, "Warming of the climate system is unequivocal."
- An Inconvenient Truth debuts
May 2006Al Gore's documentary about a man, a climate, and too much gas rocks the indie film circuit and hits mainstream audiences, getting people everywhere talking about carbon dioxide concentrations. Journalists flagrantly abuse the phrase "An Inconvenient [X]" as they report on the film's implausible popularity.
- Montreal climate conference
Nov 2005 to Dec 2005The Montreal climate conference, or COP11, begets the Montreal Action Plan, which sets forth a fuzzy vision for extending the life of Kyoto beyond its 2012 expiration date and slashing greenhouse-gas emissions even more. Or that’s the hope, anyway.
- Kyoto Protocol goes into force
Feb 16, 2005Ninety days after Russia signals its commitment, the Kyoto Protocol takes effect for the 128 nations that ratified it. Legally binding emission targets, emissions trading, and the Clean Development Mechanism all kick in. The U.S. is still not returning Kyoto's phone calls, prompting the protocol to buy several self-help relationship books and a tub of Ben and Jerry's.
- Russia gets on board: Kyoto is a go!
Nov 18, 2004After mulling it over for seven years, Russia alerts the United Nations that it's in for a game of emissions-reductions roulette Ă la Kyoto. This means enough countries are on board and the treaty is a go.
- Bush pulls out of Kyoto
Mar 2001Newly elected President George W. Bush withdraws the U.S. from the Kyoto Protocol, which former President Bill Clinton had signed symbolically but never submitted to the Senate for ratification. Bush criticized the protocol's binding targets for developed nations, saying they would ruin the American economy and give China and India free passes to keep polluting. Thus begins the U.S.'s slide into climate villainy.
- IPCC climate report: Round 3
Jan 2001In their Third Assessment Report, those sharp IPCC scientists -- you won't find them lying down on the job! -- release increasingly clear statements that the climate is changing, and lately most of it is due to human activity, like fossil-fuel burning, agriculture, and changes in land use. Things that are cold (think: glaciers) are melting, and surface air temperatures are heating up. Bad news.
- Kyoto Protocol
Dec 11, 1997The (in)famous Kyoto Protocol is drawn up and signed at COP3, thanks in part to U.S. Vice President Al Gore's work hammering out a final deal. Unlike the UNFCCC, the Kyoto Protocol lays down the law with binding emissions targets -- for rich countries, that is. It holds 37 developed nations responsible for cutting greenhouse-gas emissions an average of 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. The richest, polluting-est countries also have to lend a hand and moolah to less-rich, less-polluting nations so they can reduce or avoid emissions too.
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- IPCC climate report: Round 2
Dec 1995The ever-on-top-of-it IPCC churns out its Second Assessment Report on the state of the climate. What'd they find this time? The climate has changed, is changing, and will (likely) continue to change. Conclusion: "The balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate." Meaning those increasing greenhouse-gas concentrations in the atmosphere? Those would be our fault.
- 1st climate treaty conference
Mar 28, 1995 to Apr 7, 1995Ich bin climate negotiator! In Berlin, Germany, climate treaty negotiations get rolling under the UNFCCC, with the aim of forging a legally binding and enforceable climate deal. Participating countries meet annually at Conferences of the Parties (COP), and this first meeting is called -- wait for it -- COP1.
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- Rio Earth Summit
Jun 3, 1992 to Jun 14, 1992The 172 countries at the so-called "Earth Summit" in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, sign onto a treaty to take care of that pesky global warming problem. The resulting U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is vague and non-binding, so even the U.S. ratifies it.Â
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- IPCC climate report: Round 1
Aug 1990The IPCC publishes its First Assessment Report, saying, yep, climate change is happening, and humans are making it worse by pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. More than half of the blame for this "enhanced greenhouse effect" -- a euphemism, for sure -- falls to CO2, a lowly molecule on its way to infamy.
- It's a bouncing baby IPCC!
Dec 1988The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is a brand-spankin’ new scientific body created under the U.N., bringing together thousands of climate scientists from all over the world to assess peer-reviewed and published literature on climate change. The group will sum up the science, describe potential climate impacts, and offer up options for action -- but not tell policy makers what to do.
- Atmospheric CO2 hits 350 ppm
1988The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reaches 350 parts per million (ppm) and keeps on truckin' upward. For most of human history, the CO2 level has hovered around 280 ppm. Many scientists and activists consider 350 ppm the "safe upper limit" for carbon dioxide levels.
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