The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted in 1992 and opened for signature at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. It entered into force in 1994. The Paris Agreement, adopted under the Convention on 12 December 2015, entered into force in 2016.
The Framework Convention
The ultimate objective of the UNFCCC, set out in Article 2, is to stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. It established the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, recognising that developed countries should take the lead. The Conference of the Parties (COP) meets annually.
The Paris Agreement
The Paris Agreement aims to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5°C (Article 2). Each party must prepare, communicate and maintain successive nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and pursue domestic measures to achieve them (Article 4). Contributions are updated every five years and must represent a progression. The Agreement also addresses adaptation, loss and damage, finance, technology transfer and capacity building, and establishes an enhanced transparency framework and a periodic global stocktake.
Why It Matters Day to Day
Climate commitments shape energy policy, electricity prices, transport, building standards, forestry and land use, and increasingly corporate disclosure and the cost of finance.
In Indonesia
Indonesia ratified the UNFCCC by Law No. 6 of 1994, the Kyoto Protocol by Law No. 17 of 2004 and the Paris Agreement by Law No. 16 of 2016. Its NDC commitments, the regulation on carbon economic value (Presidential Regulation No. 98 of 2021) and the carbon exchange launched in 2023 all flow from this framework. For an archipelagic nation facing sea-level rise, the stakes are direct.