International climate framework: from UNFCCC to Paris

The international climate framework has three layers: the 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and the 2015 Paris Agreement. These treaties bind states, not companies directly. Their significance for your organisation runs through the European Climate Law, the emissions trading system and the Dutch Climate Act (Klimaatwet). Courts also use the treaties to give content to open-textured norms, such as the standard of social due care.

The short answer

• The 1992 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) sets the objective and the ground rules, without hard reduction figures.
• The Kyoto Protocol was the first instrument to impose quantitative obligations on industrialised countries.
• The Paris Agreement works with nationally determined contributions (NDCs) and a five-yearly global stocktake.
• The EU translates these commitments into binding law, notably in the European Climate Law.
• The Netherlands has anchored the EU targets in the Climate Act (Klimaatwet), with a 55 per cent reduction in 2030 and climate neutrality in 2050.
• For businesses, the treaties mainly have indirect effect, through permits, emissions trading, reporting and liability.

Layer 1: the UN Framework Convention of 1992

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was adopted in 1992 and entered into force in 1994. Participation in it is almost universal. It contains no specific reduction percentages.

The Convention does three things. It formulates the ultimate objective: stabilisation of greenhouse gas concentrations at a level that prevents dangerous interference with the climate system. It lays down principles, including common but differentiated responsibilities. And it establishes an institutional structure, with the annual Conference of the Parties (COP) as its supreme body.

That structure is legally relevant. Every later agreement, Kyoto and Paris included, is built on it. COP decisions are generally not treaties, but they do interpret treaty obligations.

Layer 2: the Kyoto Protocol

The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005. It imposed binding emission ceilings on the industrialised countries listed in Annex I. For the first commitment period, 2008 to 2012, the then EU Member States were subject to a joint reduction of eight per cent compared with 1990.

Kyoto also introduced the flexible mechanisms: international emissions trading, the Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation. That idea, of achieving reductions where they are cheapest, underpins today’s European emissions trading system.

A second commitment period (2013 to 2020) was arranged through the Doha Amendment. That amendment only entered into force at the end of the period itself. The Protocol therefore remained limited in reach. In practice, the Paris Agreement has taken over Kyoto’s role.

Layer 3: the Paris Agreement

The Paris Agreement was adopted on 12 December 2015 and entered into force on 4 November 2016. As at 27 January 2026 it had 194 parties.