Climate Change: a Time to Act!

The book exhibition “Climate Change: a Time to Act!” timed to the Paris Conference on Climate Change COP21 runs in the Documents of international organizations reading room No. 207g from October 29 to November 30.

The forthcoming United Nations’ Conference on Climate Change COP21 will be held from November 30 to December 11, 2015, in Paris at the exhibition center “Le Bourget”.

The major task of the conference is signing of a general contract which will allow our planet to remain adapted for life. Signing of the given paper is very important for future generations’ life, because in the event that nothing will be undertaken they will have to face serious climatic challenges.

The contract, which is to be signed in Paris in December, 2015, pursues two purposes: making climate warming less than 2°C and reducing emission of greenhouse gases by 2020 in order to achieve their progressive reduction and negative exponents by the end of the XXI century.

The climate change affects all of us touching upon virtually all social and economic branches: from agriculture to tourism, from infrastructure to public health services. It affects strategic resources, such as water, foodstuffs and energy. It slows down and even threatens sustainable development. Therefore today the international community is working for courageous decisions and large-scale drastic measures on the struggle against climate change.

In 1992, the nations joined the international agreement − the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to examine the question of what they can do to reduce the global warming and the climate change caused by them, and how to cope with its consequences.

By 1995 the nations had realized that regulations about reduction of greenhouse gas emission stipulated by the Convention were insufficient. Thereof they started negotiations about amplification of global efforts to counteract the climate change, and in 1997 they accepted the Kyoto Protocol.

The Kyoto Protocol is the legally binding document for developed countries, for which specific goals on reduction of emissions are established. The first Kyoto Protocol commitment period started in 2008 and expired in 2012. The second commitment period has begun on January 1st, 2013 and it will end in 2020.

At present, there are 195 parties of the Convention and 192 parties of Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol came into force on February 16, 2005. Since then parties of the Protocol have continued negotiations and have made alternations to the document in order to achieve more significant goals by 2030.

The offered exhibition presents over 40 publications in the Russian and English languages: books, brochures, mimeographed papers and periodicals.

The exposition includes the following thematic sections:

• Climate change and sustainable development.
• Financing of efforts to reduce the global climate change.
• International legal documents in the sphere of climate change and environment protection.
• Climate change and water resources management.
• The problem of the global climate change and its solutions in the Republic of Belarus.
• Reduction of greenhouse gases emission as response to climate change challenges.

The exhibition will be interesting to experts in meteorology, hydrology, ecology, geophysics; university students and professors; science officers, and also everyone who is concerned with the issues of climate change and environment protection.

Useful links

The UN activity

• The climate change
• The UN system and the climate change
• The UN Secretary General’s activity
• Global issues on the UN Agenda
• The UN News

Conferences

• The UN Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 20–22 June, 2012)
• The UN Summit on Climate Change (New York, the USA, 23 September, 2014)
• Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (Durban, South Africa, 28 November – 9 December, 2011)
• Summit “Combating Desertification, Land Degradation and Drought in the context of Sustainable Development and Eradication of Poverty” (New York, 20 September, 2011)
• Plenary debate on “green economy” (New York, 2 June 2011 года)
• Plenary debate on disaster management (New York, 9 February, 2011)
• Conference of the parties of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (Mexico, 29 November – 10 December, 2010)
• The UN Conference on Climate Change (COP 15) (Copenhagen, 7–18 December, 2009)
• Summit on Climate Change (New York, 22 September, 2009)
• The General Assembly plenary debate on climate change (New York, 11–12 February, 2008)
• The UN Conference on Climate Change (Bali, Indonesia, 3–14 December, 2007)
• High-level action on climate change “The Future in our Hands: Addressing the Leadership Challenge of Climate Change” (New York, 24 September, 2007)
• The Conference on Climate Change (New York, 6–17 November, 2006)
• “The Planet Earth” + 5 Summit (New York, 23–27 June, 1997)
• The UN Conference on Environment and Development (Rio de Janeiro, 3–4 June, 1992)
• The UN Conference on Human Environment (Stockholm, 5–16 July, 1972)

Events

• The UN Decade for Deserts and the Fight Against Desertification (2010–2020)
• The International Decade “Water for Life” (2005–2015)
• The World Day of Water (22 March)
• The World Day of Biodiversity (22 May)
• The World Environment Day (5 June)
• The World Day Against Desertification and Drought (17 June)
• The International Year of Planet Earth (2008)
• The International Year of Sanitation (2008)
• The UN Decade for Deserts and the Fight against Desertification (2006)

Reports

• The World Development Report 2010 “Development and Climate Change”
• Working group reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
• Reports of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
• National reports on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change