Adopted in 1992 and made available for signing during the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992. It went into effect in March 1994 and had 197 signatories as of last year. (196 States and the European Union). The ultimate goal of the Convention is to ‘stabilise greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would preclude hazardous anthropogenic influence with the climate system.' Two accords pursue and implement the Convention's provisions: first the Kyoto Protocol, and now the Paris Agreement.