In December 2007, the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali resulted in the adoption of the `Bali roadmap'. This developed a new negotiating process, to be ready by 2009, which will lead to a post-2012 international agreement on climate change action.
At the UN Climate Change Conference in Poznan in December 2008 governments gave a commitment to shift into full negotiating mode in 2009 in order to shape an ambitious and effective international response to climate change, to be agreed in Copenhagen at the end of 2009.
States and Regions Climate Change Alliance
Recognising the importance of strong leadership, Scotland was one of the first signatories to the 2005
Montreal Declaration of the Federated States and Regional Governments on Climate Change.
This Declaration committed states and regions to work together to tackle climate change and in November 2006, agreed the establishment of a Climate Change Alliance with amongst others California, Quebec, Manitoba, Bavaria and South Australia.
Kyoto Protocol
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UN-FCCC) was established in 1992 to consider options for reducing global warming and adapting to climate change. In response to the scientific consensus from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that human activities are having a noticeable effect on our climate, countries around the world united in action in 1997 to tackle climate change through the Kyoto Protocol - the only global international agreement on climate change. The Kyoto Protocol entered into force in February 2005. It committed the signatories to reducing their combined emissions of the six main greenhouse gases by 5.2 per cent below 1990 levels over the period 2008-2012. The Kyoto Protocol has to date over 180 member Parties.
Scotland as part of the United Kingdom has ratified both the Climate Change Convention and the Kyoto protocol. The UK share of the collective Kyoto target, assumed by the European Union is an emissions reduction of 12.5 per cent.