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We underline that climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. We emphasise our strong political will to urgently combat climate change in accordance with the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities. To achieve the ultimate objective of the Convention to stabilize greenhouse gas concentration in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system, we shall, recognizing the scientific view that the increase in global temperature should be below 2 degrees Celsius, on the basis ofequity and in the context of sustainable development, enhance our long-term cooperative action to combat climate change. We recognize the critical impacts of climate change and the potential impacts of response measures on countries particularly vulnerable to its adverse effects and stress the need to establish a comprehensive adaptation programme including international support.

Climate change has been recognized by a large number of international organizations (United Nations, European Union, OECD, World Bank), scientific bodies (IPCC, Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, IGBP, IHDP, START, IAI, APN, etc), business organizations, and many national, state, provincial, and local governments, as well as the international, national, and local mass media as a critical problem for the present and future of societies around the world. Although climate change has been identified as a major environmental challenge for some time, the current level of attention and consensus for action surpass previous considerations. Also remarkable is the recent recognition of the key role of urban areas in addressing the challenges created by climate change, both in terms of mitigation and adaptation. Previous attention to climate change studied a broad range of sectors (agriculture, energy, fisheries, forestry, biodiversity, health, institutions, etc.) and processes (deforestation, land use, natural disasters, etc.), but little attention was given to urban areas and most of that attention had focused on their role in the emission of greenhouse gases.