	Introduction and Overview1

Responding to concerns that human activities are increasing concentrations of "greenhouse gases" (such as carbon dioxide and methane) in the atmosphere and causing potentially damaging climate change and global warming, nearly all nations of the world joined together in 1992 to sign the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The United States was one of the first nations to ratify this treaty. It included a legally non-binding, voluntary pledge that the major industrialized/developed nations would establish national action plans aiming to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000, and that all nations would undertake voluntary actions to measure and report greenhouse gas emissions to the UNFCCC Secretariat. As scientific consensus grew that human activities are having a discernible impact on global climate systems, contributing to a warming of the Earth that could result in major impacts such as sea level rise, changes in weather patterns, and health effects—and as it became apparent that many major nations such as the United States and Japan would not be able to reduce their emissions to 1990 levels by 2000—parties to the treaty decided in 1995 that it would be necessary to move beyond voluntary measures and to enter into legally binding commitments. The protocol establishes legally binding, mandatory emissions reductions for the six major greenhouse gases . These negotiations were continued through two subsidiary bodies that address technical issues, and then decisions were made at the annual conferences of the parties (COPs) to the UNFCCC until February 2005 when the Kyoto Protocol had achieved the necessary ratifications to enter into force; the annual meeting is now a UNFCCC COP, combined with a "meeting of the parties (MOP)" to the Protocol. In December 2007, COP-13/MOP-3 convened in Bali, Indonesia, and began the process of formulating an agreement that would succeed the Kyoto Protocol when its commitment period ends in 2012. (As noted above, only nations that ratify the Protocol are subject to its terms; the United States later rejected participation, and thus is not bound by it.) Both of these processes involve workshops and meetings with reports to the COP/MOP meetings in 2006 and 2007. However, the challenge at the COP/MOP meeting in Bali and the negotiations to follow remains how to find agreement on the nature of commitments, if any, that would be acceptable to all the major players—including Kyoto Protocol parties with existing obligations, developing countries that are major GHG emitters, and the United States, whose role is regarded as critical by all potential participants in the post-2012 period. Key elements and issues of the Bali Action Plan concerning mitigation include:
— Need for " deep cuts in global emissions " : the decision at Bali recognized "that deep cuts in global emissions will be required to achieve the ultimate objective of the Convention [avoiding dangerous climate change] and emphasiz[ed] the urgency to address climate change as indicated in the Fourth Assessment Report" of the IPCC. The first sessions of the UNFCCC working groups met March 31 – April 4, 2008 in Bangkok, Thailand. In March 2001, President George W. Bush rejected the Kyoto Protocol, and the United States has not formally participated in further negotiations on the Protocol. In February 2002, President Bush announced a U.S. policy of reducing the net "greenhouse gas intensity" of the U.S. economy by 18% over the next 10 years. Greenhouse gas intensity measures the ratio of greenhouse gas emissions to economic output. "Major Economies" Initiative by President Bush on Climate Change

Just prior to the G-8 meeting, President Bush announced May 31, 2007, that the United States would convene a meeting in Washington in late September of "major economies"—those that are "major emitters" of GHG—on "Energy Security and Climate Change." Framework Convention on Climate Change by 2009." Other International Meetings

In addition to the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol processes, and the initiatives by the United States discussed above, several major international meetings focused on climate change took place in 2007.
Concerns over climate change, often termed "global warming," have emerged both in the United States and internationally as major policy issues. Reports in 2007 by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) provided scientific underpinnings for these concerns, and the number of proposals and international meetings devoted to these issues has grown, as discussed in this report. In December 2007, the meeting of parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) convened in Bali, Indonesia, and agreed on the "Bali Action Plan" to guide negotiations over the next two years, with the goal of formulating by 2009 a decision that would identify the next round of commitments by the nations of the world to address climate change. Several "Working Group" meetings are scheduled to work on these issues during 2008, beginning with a meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, in April that formulated a work plan for negotiations.
The first treaty to address climate change, the UNFCCC was completed and opened for signature in 1992. It includes voluntary commitments to establish national action plans for measures that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The United States was one of the first nations to sign and ratify this treaty, and it entered into force in 1994. However, it was soon concluded by parties to the treaty that mandatory reductions in emissions of the six major greenhouse gases (of which carbon dioxide, mainly from burning of fossil fuels, is the most prevalent) would be required. The resulting Kyoto Protocol, which was completed in 1997 and entered into force in February 2005, committed industrialized nations that ratify it to specified, legally binding reductions in emissions of the six major greenhouse gases. The United States has not ratified the Protocol, and thus is not bound by its provisions. In March 2001, the Bush Administration rejected the Kyoto Protocol, and subsequently announced a U.S. policy for climate change that relies on voluntary actions to reduce the "greenhouse gas intensity" (ratio of emissions to economic output) of the U.S. economy by 18% over the next 10 years.
Under the Kyoto Protocol, the collective commitments of the industrialized nations are to reduce the Parties' emissions by at least 5% below their 1990 levels, averaged over the "commitment period" 2008 to 2012. Over the past year, several high-level meetings have focused on the need to deal with climate change, including the G-8 meeting in June 2007 and meetings at the United Nations. President Bush announced on May 31, 2007, that the United States would convene a meeting of major economies to begin a series of meetings in Washington, D.C. through 2008 to find a voluntary framework for dealing with energy security and climate change.
As of November 2007, the UNFCCC Secretariat listed 174 nations and the European Union as parties to the Kyoto Protocol. Australia announced its ratification at the December meeting in Bali. Annual meetings of the parties are to continue, using the Bali "roadmap" agreed on in December 2007. Major challenges involve finding agreement on the nature of legally binding commitments, if any, that would prove acceptable to all major players: current parties, developing countries that are major emitters, and the United States.