Global, EU and UK Policy

The high profile given by the UK to climate change, together with the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol in February 2005, injected fresh momentum into the international debate and gave a valuable opportunity to raise the profile of this issue worldwide and to complement and reinforce the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process.

The Kyoto Protocol

The Kyoto Protocol came into effect on the 16th February 2005 and provides the first ever framework for international action with binding targets and timetables for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and with 150 countries having ratified it the Protocol represents a very important milestone in tackling climate change.

But the Kyoto Protocol is just a first step, mapping action for the first commitment period (until 2012). The world's largest emitter - the US - and a number of other countries have made it clear that they will not participate in the Kyoto process, making it vitally important that we enter into discussion with all parties on action beyond 2012.

The UK is on track to meet its Kyoto target - a significant achievement. However, more needs to be done to meet our national 2010 goal of reducing emissions by 20% below 1990 levels. The current review of the UK Climate Change Programme (CCP) will examine the success of existing policies and the scope for further emission reductions.

Sustainable Development and Climate Change

Unsustainable development across the world is overexploiting resources and creating pollution, changing habitats and driving species to extinction. It is creating social problems which are exacerbated by the inequalities in health, wealth, education and employment which accompany it.

This first sustainable development strategy for Northern Ireland, along with the subsequent implementation plan, represents our first steps towards tackling these challenges and presents the opportunity to achieve a better balance between social, environmental and economic progress.

Sustainable development is a concept which, because of its wide ranging and cross-cutting nature, is hard to define and even harder to put into practice.

The most widely known international definition is “Development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

In conjunction with this approach we must also prepare for and adapt to the impacts of climate change. Some degree of climate change resulting from past and present emissions of greenhouse gases is already inevitable. In order to cope with the impacts of climate change we need to adapt – this action is complementary to our efforts to reduce emissions to avoid dangerous levels of climate change.

The full strategy can be accessed here: First Steps towards sustainability (5.45MB)