Kyoto Protocol
Introduction to Kyoto Protocol
Kyoto Protocol, international treaty adopted in 1997 that sets concrete targets for developed countries to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming, also known as climate change. The Ky_to Protocol is a supplementary treaty to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and went into force in February 2005. More than 130 countries are party to it, with this figure set to rise; so far, however, the United States has refused to ratify the treaty.
Under the Ky_to Protocol, developed, or industrialized, countries are subject to legally binding commitments to curb their emissions of the six main greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, and sulfur hexafluoride. The targets are based mostly on the emission levels of these pollutants in 1990. In general the treaty calls for industrialized nations to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 5 percent below 1990 levels. The target goals must be accomplished by 2012, and commitments to start achieving the targets begin in 2008. Developing countries-that is, most countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America-are only subject to general commitments.
The Ky_to Protocol is a flexible treaty, allowing individual governments to decide what specific policies and reforms to implement to meet their commitments. It also allows countries to offset some of their emissions by increasing the carbon dioxide absorbed, or sequestered, by trees and other vegetation. However, eligible sequestration activities, and the amount of offsetting allowed, are tightly controlled.
In addition, the Ky_to Protocol established three market-based mechanisms to help bring down the costs of lowering emissions. These mechanisms are known as joint implementation, the clean development mechanism (CDM), and emissions trading. Under joint implementation and the CDM, a country can invest in a project to curb emissions in another country, where it is cheaper to do so, and thereby acquire the resulting credit to offset against its own target. Under emissions trading, a country that exceeds its own target of lowering emissions can transfer the surplus credits to another country that is finding it more difficult to reduce its emissions. Developing countries can participate, but only through the CDM. Safeguards are in place to ensure that emission credits are genuine.
Developed countries are subject to stringent reporting requirements, and a compliance committee considers any suspected noncompliance. Countries commit to achieve a certain level of their target goal beginning in 2008. Any country that fails to meet its emissions target may be penalized by having to meet a proportionally higher target for the following commitment period and by having to prepare an action plan to show how emissions will be reined in.
The entry into force of the Ky_to Protocol was delayed for several years while countries finalized its details. A package of decisions, known as the Marrakech Accords, was finally agreed to in 2001, setting out in detail how the protocol’s rules and mechanisms will work. Implementation is now underway, with the CDM already operational. Many businesses are especially keen to participate in the market mechanisms, and the European Union (EU) launched a regional emissions trading system in January 2005. Meeting the protocol’s targets, however, will be a challenge for many countries.
Talks are due to start soon on next steps in the international effort to control climate change. Key controversial issues will include when and how to negotiate stronger commitments for developing countries, and how to secure the participation of the United States. Under the administration of Democratic president Bill Clinton, the United States supported the protocol but never submitted it to Congress for ratification because of opposition from the Republican Party. When Republican George W. Bush became president in 2001, the United States withdrew its support for the protocol. Bush claimed that the treaty would harm the U.S. economy and was unfair to industrialized nations because developing countries were not required to control their emissions. ” (1)
Kyoto Protocol (in the Human Development Area)
In this context, Kyoto Protocol means: a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or FCCC), aimed at fighting global warming. The UNFCCC is an international environmental treaty with the goal of achieving the “stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.” The Protocol was initially adopted on 11 December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, and entered into force on 16 February 2005. As of September 2011, 191 states have signed and ratified the protocol. The only remaining large signatory not to have ratified the protocol is the United States.
The Kyoto Protocol, said Ms.Laurence Boisson de Chazournes, Professor of International Law, “introduces innovative market-based mechanisms that are available to Annex I Parties to help them meet the new rigorous commitments. These mechanisms enable parties to achieve compliance through climate friendly investments in other countries and through emission trading.
Yet, the mechanisms outlined in the Protocol required further specification of their operational rules, guidelines and procedures. Many of the 84 States which had signed the Protocol and declared their intention to ratify were reluctant to actually do so before they had a clearer picture of the Protocol’s detailed implementation procedures.
The Conference of Parties (COP) of the Convention therefore started negotiating the terms of implementation of the Protocol that had been left open for further specification. Due to the large stakes at play once the Protocol would enter into force, negotiations hit major roadblocks and came to a near breakdown in December 2000.
Yet, when in addition the largest GHG emitter declared its withdrawal from the process, this galvanized the determination of the supporters of the Protocol and negotiations of implementation procedures were successfully resumed in the following year and concluded at the seventh session of the COP with the adoption of the Marrakesh Accords in November 2001.
The Marrakesh Accords consist of thirty-nine decisions by the COP and provided the much needed framework of modalities and implementation rules that led to the subsequent ratification of the Protocol. The Protocol entered into force on 16 February 2005; on the ninetieth day after “at least 55 Parties to the Convention, incorporating Annex I Parties which accounted in total for at least 55 per cent of the total carbon dioxide emissions for 1990 from that group” deposited their instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession.” (article 25 (1)).
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The major feature of the Kyoto Protocol is that it sets binding targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European community for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions .These amount to an average of five per cent against 1990 levels over the five-year period 2008-2012.
The major distinction between the Protocol and the Convention is that while the Convention encouraged industrialised countries to stabilize GHG emissions, the Protocol commits them to do so.
Recognizing that developed countries are principally responsible for the current high levels of GHG emissions in the atmosphere as a result of more than 150 years of industrial activity, the Protocol places a heavier burden on developed nations under the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities.”
The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on 11 December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005. The detailed rules for the implementation of the Protocol were adopted at COP 7 in Marrakesh in 2001, and are called the “Marrakesh Accords.”
Author: anonym (A)
Carbon-offsetting process. The Mechanisms under the Kyoto Protocol: Emissions Trading, the Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation
Carbon offsets can be bought and sold as part of compliance schemes, such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Kyoto Protocol or the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS; a regional carbon market where European countries can trade carbon allowances to meet regional emission-reduction goals).
The Kyoto Protocol requires parties in the developed world to limit greenhouse gas emissions relative to their emissions in 1990. Under the Kyoto Protocol, emissions trading in a so-called carbon market may help them meet their targeted limit: a party can sell an unused emissions allowance to a party above its limit. The protocol also allows carbon offsets to be traded. Kyoto Protocol parties can obtain offsets through a mechanism called joint implementation (JI), where one party develops an emission-reduction or emission-removal project in another country where emissions are limited. Parties can also obtain offsets through the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) for projects in developing countries, where emissions are not otherwise limited.
Author: anonym (A)
Kyoto Protocol
Embracing mainstream international law, this section on kyoto protocol explores the context, history and effect of the area of the law covered here.
Resources
Further Reading
- The entry “kyoto protocol” in the Parry and Grant Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law (currently, the Encyclopaedic Dictionary of International Law, 2009), Oxford University Press
Resources
Notes and References
- Information about Kyoto Protocol in the Encarta Online Encyclopedia
Guide to Kyoto Protocol
Hierarchical Display of Kyoto Protocol
International Relations > International affairs > International instrument > International convention > UN convention > UN Framework Convention on Climate Change
International Relations > International affairs > International instrument > International convention > Climate change policy > Emission trading
International Relations > International affairs > International instrument > International convention > Climate change policy > Joint implementation
International Relations > International affairs > International instrument > International convention > Climate change policy > Clean development mechanism
International Relations > International affairs > International instrument > International convention > Climate change policy > Reduction of gas emissions
International Relations > International affairs > International instrument > International convention > Degradation of the environment > Climate change
Kyoto Protocol
Concept of Kyoto Protocol
See the dictionary definition of Kyoto Protocol.
Characteristics of Kyoto Protocol
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Resources
Translation of Kyoto Protocol
- Spanish: Protocolo de Kyoto
- French: Protocole de Kyoto
- German: Kyoto Protocol
- Italian: Protocollo di Kyoto
- Portuguese: Protocolo de Quioto
- Polish: Protokół z Kioto
Thesaurus of Kyoto Protocol
International Relations > International affairs > International instrument > International convention > UN convention > UN Framework Convention on Climate Change > Kyoto Protocol
International Relations > International affairs > International instrument > International convention > Climate change policy > Emission trading > Kyoto Protocol
International Relations > International affairs > International instrument > International convention > Climate change policy > Joint implementation > Kyoto Protocol
International Relations > International affairs > International instrument > International convention > Climate change policy > Clean development mechanism > Kyoto Protocol
International Relations > International affairs > International instrument > International convention > Climate change policy > Reduction of gas emissions > Kyoto Protocol
International Relations > International affairs > International instrument > International convention > Degradation of the environment > Climate change > Kyoto Protocol
See also
- Emission trading
- Joint implementati
on - Clean development mechanism
- Reduction of gas emissions
- Climate change
- Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
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