The first major step towards globally-based climate protection was the UN conference on Environment and Development at Rio de Janeiro in 1992. This famous Rio conference led to the adoption of the framework climate convention, intended to stabilize the concentration of greenhouse gases at a level that will probably remain relatively safe for people. However, Rio went no further than non-binding commitments.

Five years later, the delegates of those countries which had signed the framework climate convention gathered at Kyoto (Japan) for another conference, which drew up the Kyoto Protocol. If ratified (brought into force), this protocol obliges the participating industrial nations to reduce the emissions of various greenhouse gases by 5.2% up to the period from 2008 to 2012. Not all industrial nations are obliged to make equal reductions - in Iceland, for instance, emissions may actually increase! There are no restrictions at all on China, India and the developing countries.