TIMELINE:
(Information collected by Matthew Degroot)
1827: Greenhouse analogy is first used by Jean-Baptiste Fourier who predicts an atmospheric effect keeps the Earth warmer than it otherwise would be.
1890s: Scientists Svante Arrhenius and P.C. Chamberlain both realize that burning fossil fuels could lead to global warming, but neither suspects the process might already have begun.
1957: Oceanographer David Keeling sets up first continuous monitoring of CO 2 levels in the atmosphere and finds a regular year-on-year rise.
1979: First World Climate Conference adopts climate change as a major issue and calls on governments "to foresee and prevent potential man-made changes in climate."
1988: United Nations (UN) sets up the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to analyze and report on scientific findings.
1990: Statistics reveal that the 1980s was the hottest decade on record, with seven of the eight warmest years recorded up to 1990. Even the coldest years in the 1980s were warmer than the warmest years of the 1880s.
1990: The first report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) finds that the planet has warmed by over 1°F in the past century and warns that only strong measures to halt rising emissions will prevent serious global warming.
1992: UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), signed by 154 nations including the U.S., sets a voluntary target of reducing emissions from industrialized countries to 1990 levels by the year 2000.
1994: The Alliance of Small Island States – many of which fear they will disappear beneath the waves as sea levels rise – adopt a demand for 20 percent cuts in emissions by the year 2005.
1997: Kyoto Protocol agreement reached on legally binding emissions cuts for industrialised nations, averaging 5.4 percent, to be met by 2012. Though the Clinton Administration was involved in negotiating the protocol, the U.S. Senate votes not to ratify unless it sees evidence of "meaningful participation" in reducing emissions from developing countries.
2001: U.S. President George W. Bush renounces the Kyoto Protocol because he believes it will damage the U.S. economy. After some hesitation, other nations agree to go ahead without the U.S.
2004: President Vladimir Putin announces in May that Russia will back the Kyoto Protocol, which could not enter into force without Russia’s participation. The Russian parliament later ratifies the Protocol, paving the way for it to enter into force in 2005.
2005: Second warmest year on record. New studies find that emissions are increasing faster than expected and are coming close to the worst case scenario predicted by the IPCC.
2007
January: The U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a coalition of major U.S. corporations and environmental groups, calls "on the U.S. government to pass legislation that requires significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions."
February: A prominent group of evangelical leaders, including many InterAction member CEOs, issues a call to action on climate change citing that "m illions of people could die in this century because of climate change, most of them our poorest global neighbors."
February: Former Vice-President Al Gore wins an Oscar for his movie An Inconvenient Truth, which becomes the third-highest grossing documentary of all time.
February, April and May: The IPCC releases a series of reports warning that: serious effects of warming have become evident; the cost of reducing emissions would be far less than the cost of the damage they will cause; and poor and developing countries will be the hardest hit because they depend more directly on the environment and have less ability to adapt.
April: The U.S. Supreme Court rules 5-4 against the Environmental Protection Agency, deciding that greenhouse gases can be regulated as pollutants under the Clean Air Act.
April : Eleven retired admirals and generals from all branches of the U.S. armed services issue a report stating, “Global climate change presents a serious national security threat which could impact Americans at home, impact United States military operations and heighten global tensions.”
June: In advance of the G8 Summit in Germany, President Bush announces a plan to set up separate negotiations, outside of the existing UN process, that would aim to agree to voluntary emissions caps. The plan is widely criticized by European leaders and environmental organizations for not going far enough.
December: Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC meets in Bali to discuss post-2012 climate change policy.
2012: Kyoto Protocol expires.
