Climate change would have lasting consequences. One giant asteroid came along 65 million years ago, and that was it for the dinosaurs.

In facing up to man-made climate change, human beings are going to have to think in terms of decades and centuries. The job is just beginning. Many of the effects of climate shifts will not be apparent for two or three generations. In the future, everyone may be hearing about and living with this problem.

The Framework Convention takes this into account. It establishes institutions to support efforts to carry out long-term commitments and to monitor long-term efforts to minimize and adjust to climate change. The Conference of the Parties, in which all states that have ratified the treaty are represented, is the Convention’s supreme body. It met for the first time in 1995 and will continue to meet on a regular basis to promote and review the implementation of the Convention. The Conference of the Parties is assisted by two subsidiary bodies (or committees), one for scientific and technological advice and the other for implementation. It can establish other bodies as well, whether temporary or permanent, to help it with its work.

It can also strengthen the Convention, as it did in Kyoto in 1997. The Protocol’s five per cent cut may seem a modest start, but given the rise in emissions that would otherwise be expected and remember that emissions in a number of developed countries have risen steadily since the 1990 base year many countries are going to have to make a significant effort to meet their commitment.

The Kyoto Protocol makes an important promise: to reduce greenhouse gases in developed countries by the end of the first decade of the new century. It should be judged a success if it arrests and reverses the 200-year trend of rising emissions in the industrialized world and hastens the transition to a climate-friendly global economy.

Key Greenhouse gases affected by human activities
	CO2	CH4	N2O	CFC-11	HCFC-22	CF	SF6
Pre-Industrial level	~280 ppmv	~700 ppbv	~275 ppbv	zero	zero	zero	zero
1994 concentration	358 ppmv	1720 ppbv	312§ppbv	268§pptv	110 pptv	72§pptv	3-4 pptv
Rate of increase*	1,5 ppmv/yr 0,4%/yr	10 ppbv/yr 0,6%/yr	0,8 ppbv/yr 0,25%/yr	0 pptv/yr 0%/yr	5 pptv/yr 5%/yr	1,2 pptv/yr 2%/yr	0,2 pptv/yr ~5%/yr
Lifetime (years)	50-200	12	120	50	12	50.000	3.200
Notes: CO2 (carbon dioxide), CH4 (methane), N2O (nitrous oxide), SF6 (sulphur hexafluoride) and CF4 (a perfluorocarbon, or PFC) are covered by the Kyoto Protocol. CFC-11 and HCFC-22 (a CFC replacement) are also ozone depleling substances and hus addressed under the Montreal Protocol rather than under the climate change agreements. 1 ppmv = 1 part per million by volume; 1 ppbv = 1 part per billion by volume; 1 pptv = 1 part per trillion (million million) by volume. § Estimated from 1992-93 data.  * The growth of CO2, CH4 and N2O are averaged over the decade beginning 1984; halocarbun growth rates are based on recent years (1990s). No single lifetime for CO2 can be defined because of the different rates of uptake by different sink processes. This has been defined as an adjustment time which takes info account the indirect effect of methane on its own lifetime. This table adapted from "Climate Change 1995", IPCC Working Group I, p. 15.