The Kyoto Protocol

In one line

Kyoto is the only instrument in the climate regime that ever imposed a binding quantitative target, it imposed it on about forty countries, and MU sets it as a short note.

In exam wording: the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was adopted on 11 December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005; under article 3 the Parties included in Annex I shall, individually or jointly, ensure that their aggregate anthropogenic carbon dioxide equivalent emissions of the greenhouse gases listed in Annex A do not exceed their assigned amounts, with a view to reducing their overall emissions by at least five per cent below 1990 levels in the commitment period 2008 to 2012.

Article 2: policies and measures

Each Annex I Party shall, in achieving its quantified commitments, implement or elaborate policies and measures in accordance with its national circumstances, and the article lists them: enhancement of energy efficiency; protection and enhancement of sinks and reservoirs, taking into account commitments under relevant international environmental agreements; promotion of sustainable forms of agriculture; research on and promotion of new and renewable energy, carbon dioxide sequestration and advanced and innovative environmentally sound technologies; progressive reduction or phasing out of market imperfections, fiscal incentives, tax and duty exemptions and subsidies in all greenhouse gas emitting sectors that run counter to the objective of the Convention; encouragement of appropriate reforms; measures to limit or reduce emissions in the transport sector; and limitation or reduction of methane through recovery and use in waste management and in energy production, transport and distribution.

Paragraph 2 provides that the Annex I Parties shall pursue limitation or reduction of emissions from aviation and marine bunker fuels working through the International Civil Aviation Organization and the International Maritime Organization. That is why international aviation and shipping have their own regimes and are outside the national totals.

Paragraph 3 requires Annex I Parties to strive to implement their policies in such a way as to minimise adverse effects on other Parties, particularly developing country Parties.

Article 3: the commitment

Paragraph 1 is the operative obligation, quoted above: the Annex I Parties shall ensure that their aggregate emissions do not exceed their assigned amounts, with a view to reducing overall emissions by at least five per cent below 1990 levels in the period 2008 to 2012.

Two things follow. It is an obligation of result, the only significant one in the whole climate regime. And it is quantified, with each Party's own percentage set in Annex B: eight per cent for the European Community, seven for the United States, six for Japan and Canada, and increases for a few.

Paragraph 2 requires each Annex I Party to have made demonstrable progress by 2005. Paragraph 3 brings in land use change and forestry, limited to direct human-induced afforestation, reforestation and deforestation since 1990, measured as verifiable changes in carbon stocks. Paragraphs 5 to 9 deal with economies in transition, banking of surplus units, and the setting of commitments for subsequent periods. Paragraphs 10 to 12 state the accounting rules for units acquired or transferred under the flexibility mechanisms.