Thirty-three years ago, delegates from around the world gathered in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development — more snappily known as the Earth Summit.

There, they established the three ‘Rio Conventions’ that have dominated policy on climate change, biodiversity and land use ever since.

This November, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), is heading back to Brazil for its annual conference of the parties (COP).

How have the conventions – and the world – fared in the meantime?

The story so far

A snapshot of climate, biodiversity and land degradation in 1995

Thirty years ago, in 1995, signatories met in Berlin for the first UNFCCC Conference of Parties (COP1) to outline specific targets on emissions.

They established the ‘Berlin Mandate’, which laid the groundwork for legally binding greenhouse gas emission reduction targets in the new millennium.

The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) had come into force two years earlier, and it would be another year before the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) came into effect.

As the parties to the UNFCCC met for the first time, average atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were 360.97 parts per million (ppm), roughly 15 percent higher than when readings started in 1958.

Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the most abundant greenhouse gases and contributes to global heating by trapping thermal energy in the atmosphere.

In 1995, the annual global average temperature was already 0.71 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels (1850–1900). 

The planet’s biodiversity wasn’t looking much better.

The global Living Planet Index (LPI) measures the state of the world’s biodiversity and is now used by the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) as an indicator for the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

According to the LPI, monitored populations of birds, mammals, fish, reptiles and amphibians had declined in abundance by 49 percent on average between 1970 and 1995.

A snapshot of climate, biodiversity and land degradation in 2005

Ten years on from the first climate COP, in 2005, the Kyoto Protocol came into force, marking the first time that most countries had international, legally binding greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets to meet.

By this time, average atmospheric CO2 levels had risen to 379.98 ppm — over 20 percent higher than when records started, and the annual global average temperature had reached 0.94 degrees above pre-industrial levels.

Biodiversity was still on the decline, with monitored populations dropping by 61 percent on average between 1970 and 2005, according to the Living Planet Index.

Desertification was gaining traction as an issue but still had no clear index in place. Meanwhile, the United Nations was gearing up to designate 2006 as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification to raise public awareness and promote the UNCCD.

A snapshot of climate, biodiversity and land degradation in 2015

Ten years ago, in 2015, the landmark Paris Agreement was signed by parties to the UNFCCC at COP21.

This created a global framework to limit the average global temperature to below 2 degrees above pre-industrial levels and to pursue a limit of 1.5 degrees.

That same year, the annual global average temperature hit 1.16 degrees above pre-industrial levels, while global atmospheric CO2 levels had risen to 401.01 ppm, a more than 27-percent increase since records began in 1958.

This was also the year that the United Nations committed to achieving land degradation neutrality by 2030. But a report released in 2018 showed that over 75 percent of the Earth’s land area was already degraded.

And according to the Living Planet Index, monitored populations had declined by an average of 71 percent by 2015compared with 1970.

A snapshot of climate, biodiversity and land degradation in 2025

As we prepare for COP30, average global atmospheric CO2 levels are 428.13 ppm, almost 20 percent higher than the first COP in 1995, and more than 27 percent higher than in 1958.

While the global average temperature for 2025 will only be determined at the end of the year, 2024 was the first year that average global temperature exceeded 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.

Last year’s record highs were partly driven by the warming influence of El Niño, and 2025 is expected to be a little cooler – but not by much, with estimates placing it in the top three hottest years on record. 

The Living Planet Index currently only runs until 2020, but by that point, monitored populations had already declined in abundance by 73 percent on average compared to 1970.

Desertification and land degradation are still hard to effectively monitor, with little progress on indexing the issue since the Rio Conventions were formed in the 1990s, but the UN reports that  the equivalent of four football fields of healthy land is degraded every second.

The future of climate, biodiversity and land degradation

Thirty years on from the first climate COP, and 33 years since the Rio Conventions were formed, things are looking a little bleak, but there is still reason for hope.

The Montreal Protocol is one example of an international agreement that has resulted in significant positive change.

Signed in 1987, the agreement regulated the production and consumption of ozone-depleting substances. To date, parties to the protocol have phased out 98 percent of these substances.

Perhaps when world leaders find themselves in the heart of the world’s biggest rainforest for COP30 this November, they will be spurred into similar action to protect the world’s climate, biodiversity and land in the next thirty years.