Delegates from up to 180 countries will gather in Bangkok this week to thrash out a work plan that should pave the way for a new international treaty in 2012 to take over the Kyoto Protocol to battle global warming.

Here are key milestones, meetings and treaties leading up to the March 31 — April 4 Bangkok conference of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

1827: French scientist Jean-Baptiste Fourier is the first to consider the "greenhouse effect," the phenomenon whereby atmospheric gases trap solar energy, increasing Earth's surface temperature.

1896: Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius blames the burning of fossil fuels (oil, gas and coal) for producing carbon dioxide (CO2), the most polluting of the greenhouse gasses now blamed for climate change.

1988: The United Nations sets up a scientific authority to vet the evidence on global warming, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

1990: First IPCC report says levels of man-made greenhouse gases are increasing in the atmosphere and predicts these will cause global warming.

1992: Creation of the UNFCCC at the Rio Summit. The UNFCCC now has 192 member countries.

1997: UNFCCC members sign the Kyoto Protocol. Under its first phase, industrialised countries must cut emissions of six greenhouse gases so they are 5.2 percent lower than 1990 levels by the end of 2012.

2001: The United States abandons the Kyoto Protocol, with President George W. Bush calling the treaty too expensive for the US and unfair as developing countries escape binding emissions cuts. Kyoto signatories minus the US agree on the treaty's rulebook, opening the way to a ratification process.

2005: Kyoto Protocol takes effect on 16 February.

2007: Landmark report by the IPCC delivers blow to climate sceptics. It says the evidence for global warming is "unequivocal" and forecasts warming of 1.8-4.0 degrees Celsius by 2100 and a rise in sea levels. Nobel Peace Prize awarded to IPCC and former US vice president Al Gore, whose documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" raised climate change awareness. UNFCCC members including the US agree after marathon talks in Bali, Indonesia, to launch negotiations on a new treaty to replace Kyoto, which expires in late 2012.

2008: Negotiators meet in Bangkok from March 31 — April 4 for the first round of negotiations toward a new deal.

AFP