First World Climate Conference in Geneva (Switzerland), with the launch of a World Climate Research Programme entrusted to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the International Council of Scientific Unions (ICSU).

1988

Creation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), responsible for assessing knowledge of climate change and its impacts.

1990

First IPCC report confirming the existence of global warming and human responsibility for the phenomenon. This report was the basis for drawing up the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). 

1992

Creation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

1997

The Kyoto Protocol was adopted, which for the first time set quantified greenhouse gas reduction commitments for developed countries between 2008 and 2012.

2005

Entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol which concerns 36 developed countries, but not the United States and Australia that did not ratify it.

2007

The Bali Action Plan opened negotiations with a view to the adoption of a new international agreement in 2009, to follow on from the Kyoto Protocol in 2012.

2009

COP15/CMP5 in Copenhagen, Denmark, approved the shared target to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius, but no new international agreement was signed.

2010

In Cancún, Mexico, institutions such as the Green Climate Fund were created.

2011

Creation of the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action (ADP). The ADP was mandated, under the Framework Convention, to produce a new "protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force". This agreement should be adopted in 2015 before taking effect in 2020. That is the challenge of COP21.

2012

The Doha Conference launched the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol (2013-2020) to fill the legal vacuum.

2015

France will be hosting and presiding the COP21 in Paris.