The Fount of Climate Change Scholarship

Abstract

Ten years ago, the world embarked on an extensive negotiating process to address the issue ofpossible climate change due to a buildup of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere. The prospect of human-induced changes in mean temperatures, weather patterns, sea level, rainfall, soil moisture, and the severity of storms looms large as a potential threat to human well-being. But the complexity of the issue-arising from the need to address a range of sources of greenhouse gas emissions, engage the world community collectively, map the scientifically complex carbon cycle that lies at the heart of the issue, understand the role of sinks as well as sources, and confront the impacts of every business on the planet as well as virtually every individualmakes the task of fashioning an international policy response rather daunting. In 1992, the Framework Convention on Climate Change was concluded and signed by more than 150 countries at the Rio Earth Summit. At the time, I was a climate change negotiator with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, making it a special privilege and pleasure to comment on The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change: A Commentary, written in 1993 by Dan Bodansky, at the time a young law professor.