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Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol
is an amendment to the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change (UNFCCC), an international treaty
on global warming. It also reaffirms sections of the
UNFCCC. Countries which ratify this protocol commit
to reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide and five
other greenhouse gases, or engage in emissions trading
if they maintain or increase emissions of these gases.
A total of 141 countries have ratified the agreement.
Notable exceptions include the United States and Australia.
The formal name of the proposed agreement,
which reaffirms sections of the UNFCCC, is the Kyoto
Protocol to the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change .
It was negotiated in Kyoto, Japan in December 1997,
opened for signature on March 16, 1998, and closed on
March 15, 1999. The agreement came into force on February
16, 2005 following ratification by Russia on November
18, 2004.
Supporters of the Kyoto Protocol
note that even if it is fully and successfully implemented
it is predicted to reduce the average global temperature
by somewhere between 0.02°C and 0.28°C by the
year 2050 (source: Nature, October 2003). Critics believe
that at an estimated cost of $100 trillion to lower
the average global temperature by a fraction of 1°C
over 45 years, it is not an effective solution to the
threat from greenhouse gas emissions.
Details of the
agreement
According to a press release from the
United Nations Environment Programme:
"The Kyoto Protocol is a legally
binding agreement under which industrialized countries
will reduce their collective emissions of greenhouse
gases by 5.2% compared to the year 1990 (but note that,
compared to the emissions levels that would be expected
by 2010 without the Protocol, this target represents
a 29% cut). The goal is to lower overall emissions from
six greenhouse gases - carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous
oxide, sulphur hexafluoride, HFCs, and PFCs - calculated
as an average over the five-year period of 2008-12.
National targets range from 8% reductions for the European
Union and some others to 7% for the US, 6% for Japan,
0% for Russia, and permitted increases of 8% for Australia
and 10% for Iceland."
It is a protocol to the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC, which
was adopted at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in
1992). All parties to the UNFCCC can sign or ratify
the Kyoto Protocol, while non-parties to the UNFCCC
cannot. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted at the third
session of the Conference of Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC
in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan.
Most provisions of the Kyoto Protocol
apply to developed countries, listed in Annex I to the
UNFCCC.
Financial commitments
The Protocol also reaffirms the principle
that developed countries have to pay, and supply technology
to, other countries for climate-related studies and
projects. This was originally agreed in the UNFCCC.
Emissions trading
Each Annex I country has agreed to limit
emissions to the levels described in the protocol, but
many countries have limits that are set above their
current production. These "extra amounts"
can be purchased by other countries on the open market.
So, for instance, Russia currently easily meets its
targets, and can sell off its credits for millions of
dollars to countries that don't yet meet their targets,
to Canada for instance. This rewards countries that
meet their targets, and provides financial incentives
to others to do so as soon as possible.
Countries also receive credits through
various shared "clean energy" programs and
"carbon dioxide sinks" in the form of forests
and other systems that remove carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere.
Washington D.C.-based NGO, in the
report "Getting It Right: Emerging Markets for
Storing Carbon in Forests", assumes values of $30-40/ton
in the US and $70-80/ton in Europe. On April 18, 2001,
The Netherlands purchased credits for 4 megatons of
carbon dioxide emissions from Poland, Romania, and the
Czech Republic; this was part of the ERUPT procurement
procedure. These purchase agreements however contained
conditions precedent, e.g. referring to the financing
of the underlying projects. Since several of these conditions
have not been met, the amount of purchased credits has
since then decreased.
[
The above knowledge is extracted from Wikipedia, the
free encyclopedia ]
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