The basics
From the homepage of the web-archive you have the following options:
- Search the web-archive - allows you to search through all the archived websites in the archive.
- Browse A-Z of archived websites - allows you to view a list of all archived websites. Clicking on the name of the website will take you to a timeline that shows you the captures for the site.
- Twitter archive - allows you to view all Twitter accounts captured in the archive.
- How to use the UNFCCC Web Archive – provides you guidance on how to get the best out of UNFCCC’s web-archive
- Clicking Web or Twitter in the top right corner of the page gives you the same options as the tiles.
- UNFCCC Main Website - allows you quick access to the UNFCCC main website.
- UNFCCC Archives Website - allows you quick access to the UNFCCC Archives website.
To browse content in the web-archive:
- Select the site you wish to browse in the A-Z list and click on the entry.
- Clicking on the entry will take you to a timeline that shows captures of the selected site. Clicking on the years will expand the timeline and show the dates that the site was captured on.
- To view a capture on a particular day, click on the blue box with the date in it.
- You can then browser the website as you would a live site. Some aspects of the site may not work, for example, search boxes that were on the site.
To browse content in the Twitter archive:
- Clicking on the account will bring up a list with all the captured posts from that site.
- It is possible to refine the posts being shown by using the date range selector and sort options at the side of the feed.
Search tips
Here are a few hints and tips for using the web-archive in other ways:
- If you know the exact URL that you want to look at but not what to search for on that page, then you can go to the timeline for that URL without going through the search engine. For example, if you want to see all the captures for unfccc.int, then you can add the URL of the live site to https://webarchive.archive.unfccc.int/*/, then this will bring up a complete overview of all the captures of that site.
- The web-archive shows all the dates that a site has been captured, but these may sometimes be only partial captures of a site. This is due to the crawler sometimes capturing bits and pieces of other websites as it is archiving a targeted URL. This is because of the nature of how websites are interlinked, and as the crawler finds embedded content.
- A "Document not found" message may appear when navigating the archive, indicating resources that UNFCCC has not archived. This is the case for content hosted on sites that are not operated by UNFCCC.
- The date of capture may change as you navigate the archive, since the archives are interconnected and interlinked. If a resource has not been archived on a particular date, the web-archive software points you to the closest resource for the content that is missing.
Alternate sources of information
It may not always be possible to find the content that you are looking for in UNFCCC’s web-archive. Whilst UNFCCC’s Records and Archives Team has been capturing content since 2022, UNFCCC has had an online presence since the 1990s. It should also be noted that UNFCCC’s Records and Archives Team does not capture all of UNFCCC’s web-content on a daily basis.
Here are suggested alternatives to visit if you cannot find what you’re looking for:
- If you are looking for web content from pre-2022, then the Internet Archive (archive.org) has been archiving web-content since 1996, including UNFCCC’s first website, and could be a good place to try.
- If you are looking for the historical records of UNFCCC, consult the UNFCCC historical archives site.
- If you are looking for audiovisual recordings of the meetings proceedings of the past Conferences of Parties and the special climate events, consult the webcast archive or audiovisual archives.
- If you are searching for specific photo coverage of UNFCCC events and meetings, then visit UNFCCC’s flickr account.
- If you still cannot find what you are looking for, then it is also possible to contact rm-team@unfccc.int and the team may be able to help with your query.