Milestones in mitigation

In part one of this two-part article on 'Mitigation and Adaptation Measures in Managing Climate Change', the writer sheds light on the climate discussions that have focused on mitigation since COP1 in 1995, which will be followed by a discussion on adaptation measures in the second part

- KRISHNA GUPTA

Ever since the beginning of the global negotiations on climate change in the first Conference of Parties (COP) in Bonn in 1995, mitigation issues have dominated the discussions. This was understandable because all countries first wanted to understand various aspects of emissions and what was needed to reduce such emissions. As a result, the initial conferences were focused on reduction of greenhouse gases emissions, which led to the Kyoto Protocol in the third Conference of Parties held in Kyoto in 1997. We may recall that the onus of emissions reductions under the Kyoto Protocol was on Annex-I or developed countries. Adaptation issues were first addressed directly in the sixth Conference of Parties in The Hague and Bonn in 2000, when the Global Environment Facility (GEF) was formed and three funds under the GEF, namely Climate Change Fund, Adaptation Fund, and LDC Fund were launched to address adaptation needs of developing countries. Adaptation issues also got traction in the Third Assessment Report published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2001.