• Since pre-industrial times, atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) such as carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide have grown because of fossil fuel use, land use change and agriculture.

• Heat-trapping GHGs create a hothouse effect, resulting in an increase in the Earth's temperature. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a scientific body set up to advice the convention, had recently estimated that temperatures would rise by as much as 6