Climate change emerged on the political agenda in the mid-1980s with the increasing scientific evidence of human interference in the global climate system and with growing public concern about the environment. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) established the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to provide policy makers with authoritative scientific information in 1988. The IPCC published its first report in 1990 concluding that the growing accumulation of human-made greenhouse gases (GHG) in the atmosphere would “enhance the greenhouse effect, resulting on average in an additional warming of the Earth’s surface” by the next century, unless measures were adopted to limit emissions. The report confirmed that climate change was a threat and called for an international
treaty to address the problem. Negotiations to formulate an international treaty on global climate protection began in 1991 and resulted in the completion, by May 1992, of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which entered into force in March 1994. During the COP3 of UNFCCC Kyoto
Protocol was formulated in Kyoto Japan in 1997. The Kyoto protocol established three mechanisms (ET, JI and CDM), to reduce atmospheric concentrations of GHG at safe levels. CDM is the only mechanism in which developing countries can participate in GHG reduction. According to the CDM Pipeline on the UNFCCC website, many developing countries from Latin America and Asia have developed and implemented CDM projects. Despite its high vulnerability levels to climate change impacts, Africa’s
participation in CDM
projects is very low. This presentation highlights the Climate change policy, world trends in CDM Project participation and gives recommendation to increase participation of Africa in development and implementation of CDM Projects.
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