Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Key definition

Climate Change definition

What does Climate Change mean? In legal practice, climate change describes long-term shifts in the Earth’s climate that inform environmental regulation, planning and EIA, governance and disclosure (ESG/TCFD), finance and litigation. Across the UK and Ireland it is generally a descriptive term rather than one exhaustively defined in statute or case law; climate legislation (for example, the Climate Change Act 2008 and analogous Acts in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland) addresses related concepts such as greenhouse gas emissions, mitigation, adaptation and net zero targets, and instruments adopt their own definitions (for example, the UNFCCC’s focus on anthropogenic change). The term refers to identifiable, persistent changes (typically...

COP26 Glasgow: Glasgow Climate Pact, Paris Rulebook, finance, energy and sector pledges—legal snapshot and next steps

Published by a LexisNexis Environment expert

Practice notes

Glasgow Summit (COP26/CMP16)

Location: Glasgow, United Kingdom
Date: 31 October–12 November 2021
Subject: Climate Change, international environmental law, climate targets

Background on the UNFCCC

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is a global treaty adopted at the 1992 ‘Earth Summit’ in Rio de Janeiro. Its purpose is to stabilise greenhouse gas (GHG) levels in the atmosphere at a point that avoids dangerous human-driven climate change. There are 197 signatories—known as Parties—to the Convention. At the outset, the UNFCCC aimed to set national reference levels for GHG emissions, using 1990 as the base year. The Conference of the Parties (COP) serves as the Convention’s decision-making body, convening annually, unless Parties agree otherwise, to evaluate progress on climate action. For additional detail, see Practice Note: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change 1992—snapshot.

Key historic UN climate change conferences

COP15, Copenhagen, 2009
COP16, Cancun, 2010
COP17, Durban, 2011
COP18, Doha, 2012
COP19, Warsaw, 2013
COP20, Lima, 2014
COP21, Paris, 2015

Does the UNFCCC impose legally binding obligations?

Currently there...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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