Climate change is today accepted as being one of the biggest problems being faced on a global scale. Starting from the end of the 1980s, studies have been made under the leadership of the United Nations and international organisations in order to reduce the negative impact and pressure of humans on the climate system, and as a result, the United Nations Climate Change Environmental Agreement (UNCCEA) was established in 1992, followed by the Kyoto Protocol (KP) in 1997. While the UNCCEA and KP were on the one hand bringing legal regulations directed at restricting and reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases caused by humans, the international trade in emissions began to be more and more effective in the area of the movements of technology and capital, on the other.


The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was opened for signature at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio World Summit), held on 3-14 June 1992.


Kyoto Protocol

The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, containing the binding targets for reducing the greenhouse gases all around the world, was signed at the third session of the Conference of Parties (COP3) held in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan. 
According the protocol, the countries in the appendix 1 had to decrease their man-made greenhouse gas emission levels under the 5% of the levels of the year 1990 in the 2008-2012 budget period.

The rules for entry into force demand that at least 55 Parties to the UNFCCC ratify the Protocol and that those include industrialised countries (Annex I countries) accounting for at least 55% of the CO2 emissions in 1990. Therefore, the Kyoto Protocol entered into force on 16 February 2005 after being approved by Russian Federation on 18 November 2004.


Paris Agreement

The Paris Agreement was open for signature by states and regional economic integration organizations that are parties to the UNFCCC (the Convention) from 22 April 2016 to 21 April 2017 at the UN Headquarters in New York. Turkey has signed Paris Agreement on April 22nd, 2017. However, as negotiations on the special situation continued, it was not approved by the Turkish Grand National Assembly.

The Paris Agreement could not take effect until at least 55 nations representing at least 55 percent of global emissions had formally joined. This happened on October 5, 2016, and the agreement went into force 30 days later on November 4, 2016. Today 160 Parties have ratified the Paris Agreement, of 197 Parties to the Convention.
In 2016, COP22 which was organized at Marrakesh in Morocco, negotiations continued in order to solve issues that were incomplete and could not be resolved by the Paris Agreement.


How Will Global Warming Affect the World and Human?



Today, around 3.9 billion people live in the cities, however, it is estimated that this figure will increase over 6 billion (around 62% of the global population) by 2050. Today’s cities hosting more than half of the global population (54%) have vital importance in combatting climate change as they are responsible for 60-80% of the global energy consumption and for more than 70% of the global greenhouse gas emissions.

The urban heat islands cause the urban areas to warm up more compared to the rural areas, especially due to unplanned urbanisation and leads to many environmental problems. These problems vary from extreme weather events such as flood and storm caused by the rising sea level, to increase of drought, decrease of water required for agriculture and food, and spread of tropical diseases.

What is Global Warming?

Global warming is the ongoing rise of the average temperature of the Earth's climate system.

The main causes of global warming;
1.    Population growth
2.    Energy consumption
3.    Land use changes
4.    Transportation