The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is one of three conventions that was adopted at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 to promote a sustainable planet for future generations. The UNFCCC entered into force in 1994 and has near-universal membership with 197 Parties. Its sister Rio Conventions are the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and the Convention to Combat Desertification.    

The purpose of the UNFCCC is to harness international cooperation to limit the rise of average global temperatures to minimize the impacts of climate change to enable timely adaptation, avoid threats to food production and ensure sustainable economic development. FAO supports UNFCCC as the central forum for climate change. 

The UNFCCC is the parent treaty of the Paris Agreement and the Kyoto Protocol. The ultimate objective of these agreements is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that will prevent dangerous human interference with the climate system, in a time frame which allows ecosystems to adapt naturally enabling sustainable development.