The United Nations and Climate Change: Legal and Policy Developments Available to Purchase

The Secretary‐General of the United Nations, Ban Ki‐moon, has declared that climate change is “the defining challenge of our times.” Climate change trends indicate increasingly severe negative impacts on the majority of countries, with disproportionate effects on poor and vulnerable populations. The scientific reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), as well as the negotiations under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), have placed the issue on the forefront of the international agenda. This article examines how climate change is shaping legal and policy developments in five key areas of UN responsibility: international law, humanitarian affairs, human rights, development, and peace and security. It concludes with some observations about high‐level efforts to coordinate the response of multilateral institutions, the changing stance of the US government, and the role of environmental protection in addressing the current global economic crisis.