Timeline of Relevant Climate Change Events
November 1988: IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Established
November 1990: IPCC and Second World Climate Conference Call for Global Treaty
December 11, 1990: UN General Assembly establishes the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) for a Framework Convention on Climate Change
May 1992: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change adopted
June 1922: UNFCCC Opens for Signature at Rio Earth Summit
March 21, 1994: UNFCCC Enters into Force
April 1995: COP (Conference of the Parties) 1 held in Berlin → Berlin Mandate establishes process to negotiate commitments for developed countries and laid the groundwork for the Kyoto Protocol
December 11, 1997: Kyoto Protocol!
November 2001: Marrakesh Accords set the stage for ratification of the Kyoto Protocol
January 2005: European Union Emissions Trading Scheme launches
February 16, 2005: Kyoto Protocol goes into force
December 2005: COP 11 in Montreal
January 2006: Clean Development Mechanism
December 2007: Bali Road Map for five main categories of addressing climate change
January 2008: Joint Implementation efforts begin under Kyoto where countries can earn emission reduction units (ERUs) from an emission-reduction or emission removal project in another country with similar commitments
December 2009: Copenhagen Accord
December 2010: Cancun Agreements establish the Green Climate Fund, the Technology Mechanism and the Cancun Adaptation Framework
December 2012: Doha Amendment under Kyoto
November 2012: Warsaw Outcomes address rulebook for reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and a mechanism to address loss and damage caused by long-term climate change impacts
September 2014: People’s Climate March in NYC (First of its kind)
December 2015: COP 21 in Paris!! Paris Agreement agreed upon
November 2016: Marrakech climate conference was to move forward on writing the rule book of the Paris Agreement
April 2017: People’s Climate March in DC
November 2017: COP 23 in Bonn, Germany
July 21, 2018: Zero Hour March
August 20, 2018: Greta Thunberg, then 15, skips school to protest outside parliament for more action against climate change
August 26, 2018: Greta is joined by fellow students, teachers and parents at another protest and begins attracting media attention for her climate campaign
September 2018: Thunberg begins a regular 'strike' from classes every Friday to protest climate issues. She invites other students to join her weekly "Fridays for Future" campaign by staging walkouts at their own schools
October 8 2018: IPCC Confirms Importance of 1.5 degrees C Goal
November 2018: More than 17,000 students in 24 countries take part in Friday school strikes. Thunberg begins speaking at high-profile events across Europe, including United Nations climate talks in Poland
December 2018: Katowice Climate Package operationalizes the climate change regime contained in the Paris Agreement
February 2019: Protests directly inspired by Thunberg take place across more than 30 countries, from Sweden to Brazil, India and the United States
March 2019: Africa Climate Week in Accra is the first 'Regional Climate Week' of 2019; first of global climate strike series (related to the big strike week in September)
March 2019: Thunberg is nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. The number of students taking part in school strikes hits more than 2 million people across 135 countries
March 15, 2019: Youth Climate Strike organized by Isra Hirsi, Haven Coleman, and Alexandria Villasenor
May 2019: Second global strike that coincided with European Parliament Elections (1,600 events, 25 countries)
May 2019: Thunberg is named one of the world's most influential people by Time magazine, appearing on its cover. "Now I am speaking to the whole world," she wrote on Twitter
July 2019: Conservative and far-right lawmakers urge a boycott of Thunberg's appearance in French parliament, mocking her as a "guru of the apocalypse" and a "Nobel prize of fear"
Aug. 1, 2019: Thunberg hits back at "hate and conspiracy campaigns" after she was described as a "deeply disturbed messiah" leading a "cult" in an opinion column by conservative Australian commentator Andrew Bolt
Aug. 5, 2019: Some 450 young "Fridays for Future" climate activists from 37 European countries gather for a summit in Lausanne, Switzerland to discuss the movement's development and work on international cooperation
Aug. 14, 2019: Thunberg sets sail from Britain for the United States to take part in a United Nations climate summit. Meanwhile, the total number of climate strikers reaches 3.6 million people across 169 countries
Aug 21, 2019: Amazon fires and social media misinformation
Aug. 28, 2019: Thunberg arrives at New York Harbor in a zero-carbon emissions vessel, completing a near-140 day journey from England to take part in a UN climate summit.
August 2019: Latin America and Carribean Climate Week
September 2019: Asia-Pacific Climate Week
Sept. 13, 2019: Thunberg takes her mission to U.S. President Donald Trump's doorstep with a protest outside the White House
Sept. 18, 2019: Thunberg is one of four students invited to a U.S. congressional hearing to provide the next generation's views on climate change. Later, she joins seven young Americans who have sued the U.S. government for failing to take action on climate change on the steps of the Supreme Court
September 20-27, 2019: Climate Strikes → Global Week for Future
September 21, 2019: First UN Youth Climate Summit; likely largest climate protest ever on this day as part of global climate strikes
September 23, 2019: UN Climate Change Summit