Global health. The current scenario and future perspectives

128 analyze the available scientific evidence to inform the population and decision-makers particularly on the development of public policies on climate change and the negotiations associated with the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Another important event in the history of climate negotiations took place in 1992 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. During this Earth Summit, different countries signed the formation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which establishes a series of basic obligations to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and collectively address climate change. The members of this Convention, called Parties, commit to taking climate action to achieve stability of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at levels that would prevent anthropogenic interference with the climate system (United Nations, 1992). To operationalize the work of the Convention, it is implemented through the Conference of the Parties (COPs), where global negotiations and decisions take place. The first COP was held in 1995 in Berlin, Germany, where the Parties agreed on the need for stronger commitments for developed countries beyond the commitments of the Convention. As a result, the Ad Hoc Group on the Berlin Mandate was established, which discussed and drafted the Kyoto Protocol (UNFCCC, 1995). The Kyoto Protocol is the first treaty for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and was formally adopted in 1997 (COP3) in Kyoto, Japan. This protocol legally binds developed countries to specific emission reduction targets within specific time periods. It includes greenhouse gases such as CO 2 , CH 4 , N 2 O, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulfur hexafluoride (SF 6 ). The protocol also establishes three flexible market-based mechanisms: International Emissions Trading (IET), Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Joint Implementation (JI). The key areas of mitigation addressed by the protocol include energy, transportation, industry, agriculture, forestry and waste management (UNFCCC, 1997). This protocol entered into force in January 2005 at COP11 in Montreal, Canada, where more than 55 parties ratified it. The protocol’s initial expiration date was 2012, after which negotiations began for the subsequent agreement, the Paris Agreement. In 2015, COP21 held in Paris, France, marked the adoption of this new agreement, which would come into effect in 2016. The Paris Agreement recognizes that climate change and its impacts affect all parties and that climate actions are intrinsically linked to sustainable development, poverty eradication, the conservation of sinks and the protection of biodiversity, among other issues. Therefore, the purpose of this Agreement is to “strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change, in the