The road to Kyoto

According to Mark Twain, weather is what everybody complains about but what nobody doesanything about. However in October 1985, at an international meeting in Villach, Austria convenedby United Nations agencies, a group of scientists decided it was time for the world to take action.The meeting concluded that there was a need to combat the perceived danger of global warming thatwould result from increasing concentrations of so-called greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Thegreenhouse gas concentrations, particularly those of carbon dioxide (a product of burning coal, oiland other fossil fuels) are increasing as a direct consequence of a range of human activities,including industrialisation, land-use practices and transport. The Villach Conference Statement wasa dramatic prophecy that launched the threat of climate change on a largely unsuspecting public.

The Villach Statement and its threat of global warming became an international rallying cryfor action to curb emissions of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. Around the world a diverserange of interest groups, especially across the environment movement, cooperated to raise publicawareness of the greenhouse climate change threat. A series of government sponsored national andinternational conferences of invited experts were widely reported in the media and ensured a raisedpublic recognition of the issue. In addition, electronic and printed information material wereprepared by national and international interest groups and distributed to the media and madeavailable...