It is a fact that the effects of climate change are having telling effects on the global environment and therefore urgent effective action has to be taken by the international community to protect those countries that are more susceptible and vulnerable to this phenomenon.

In the early 1980s, scientists were beginning to raise concerns about climate change.
In 1988, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was created by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meterological Organization (WMO) to assess the scientific knowledge on global warming. Its first major report in 1990 showed that there was broad international consensus that climate change was human-induced.
That report led way to an international convention for climate change. This became the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), signed by over 150 countries at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992. (By the middle of 2000, over 180 countries had signed and ratified it).
The Convention took effect in 1994. By 1995 negotiations had started on a protocol — an international agreement linked to the existing treaty, but standing on its own. This led to the Kyoto Protocol, adopted unanimously in 1997. The main purposes of this protocol was to
* Provide mandatory targets on greenhouse-gas emissions for the world’s leading economies all of whom accepted it at the time;
* Provide flexibility in how countries meet their targets;
* Further recognize that commitments under the Protocol would vary from country to country.
As a general principle, it was also recognised that most of the greenhouse gas emissions contributing to climate change come from the industrialized “Northern” countries, that have been developing since the Industrial Revolution, as such emissions remain in the atmosphere a long time. In addition, they have been developing for longer than the Third World, so action to address this must proportionally be with those industrialized nations. The following summarizes this well:
Industrialised countries set out on the path of development much earlier than developing countries, and have been emitting GHGs [Greenhouse gases] in the atmosphere for years without any restrictions. Since GHG emissions accumulate in the atmosphere for decades and centuries, the industrialised countries’ emissions are still present in the earth’s atmosphere. Therefore, the North is responsible for the problem of global warming given their huge historical emissions. It owes its current prosperity to decades of overuse of the common atmospheric space and its limited capacity to absorb GHGs.
Notably Small Island Developing States (SIDS) as it stands currently seem to to be the most vulnerable to the vagaries of climate change
On December 3,2011 on the side lines of the 17th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP 17) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC ) in Durban, South Africa Luke Daunivalu, Deputy Permanent Representative of Fiji to the UN, underlined that the 14 Pacific SIDS are defined by oceans, as 97 percent of their territory consists of seawater. He identified climate change and ocean acidification as the greatest adversity facing the Pacific SIDS, and called for increased accountability in global fisheries management.
Amb. Angus Friday, International Climate Policy Specialist, World Bank, and Former AOSIS Chair, stressed the high vulnerability of SIDS to extreme weather events. He welcomed the growing interest in the blue economy, highlighting the need to introduce the concept into the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD, or Rio+20) and climate change processes. Selwin Hart, Councillor, Permanent Mission of Barbados to the UN, and Chief Negotiator for Climate Change for Barbados, said Rio+20 should comprehensively address oceans issues in order to be a success. He called for the operationalisation of the Cancun Agreements, a second commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol, and a new legally binding agreement under the Convention. He urged focusing on implementation of existing commitments at Rio+20.
Against this backdrop President Donald Ramotar’s has made a timely call at the UN General Assembly for the international community to seriously consider meaningful assistance to Small Island Developing States (SIDS)by supporting the establishment of a special, easily accessible fund that will aid in resilience building, and disaster risk management.
In his address to the 68th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, the Guyanese Head of State spoke on behalf of poor and developing countries that are often powerless in the battle against climate change.
“Another serious challenge to sustainable development is the impact of climate change. This is even more so for the Small Island Developing States represented in this Assembly, some of whom face an imminent passage to oblivion. Climate change is not of our making, but sadly, as Small Island Developing States and low lying states, we remain the victims of its most adverse impacts,” President Ramotar said.
The President also hammered home a very important point when he stressed tabout he reluctance of major greenhouse gas emitters to take action amidst evidence of a 50 percent rise and warnings about the consequences of global temperature rise above 2°C above pre-industrial levels, President Ramotar is still taken aback by the level of apathy.
“This marked failure to take decisive action poses a threat to all humanity. It is tragic that while we all know the dangers that lurk due to global warming and climate change, we seem incapable of stopping ourselves. This is no doubt due to the unstoppable drive to accumulate for accumulation sake and sheer self-interest on the part of some countries,” President Ramotar said.
It is hoped that at this 68th UN General Assembly more concrete, tangible and decisive measures would emerge to deal with the effects of climate, particularly in relation to SIDS.