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| The Kyoto Protocol, 1997 |
The Grandma continues with her struggle against the flu. Today, she has wanted to read a little about the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty which commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and was adopted on a day like today in 1997.
Nowadays, the number of diseases that have a relation with the environment is increasing without stopping. We must protect our planet, we must protect the Earth because we haven't got another planet and we must fight to conserve it and protect all the species that live in it.
Before talking about the Kyoto Protocol, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Elementary Language Practice manual (Grammar 39).
More information: Mustn't, Don't have to, Shouldn't I & II
The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty which extends the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that commits state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, based on the scientific consensus that, part one, global warming is occurring and part two it is extremely likely that human-made CO2 emissions have predominantly caused it.
The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan on 11 December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005. There are currently 192 parties, Canada withdrew from the protocol, effective December 2012, to the Protocol.
The Kyoto Protocol implemented the objective of the UNFCCC to reduce the onset of global warming by reducing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system (Article 2). The Kyoto Protocol applies to the six greenhouse gases listed in Annex A: Carbon dioxide (CO2), Methane (CH4), Nitrous oxide (N2O), Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) Perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6).
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| The Kyoto Protocol, 1997 |
The Protocol is based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities: it acknowledges that individual countries have different capabilities in combating climate change, owing to economic development, and ergo puts the obligation to reduce current emissions on developed countries on the basis that they are historically responsible for the current levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.
The Protocol's first commitment period started in 2008 and ended in 2012. A second commitment period was agreed on in 2012, known as the Doha Amendment to the Kyoto Protocol, in which 37 countries have binding targets: Australia, the European Union and its 28 member states, Belarus, Iceland, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland and Ukraine.
More information: UNFCCC
Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine have stated that they may withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol or not put into legal force the Amendment with second round targets. Japan, New Zealand and Russia have participated in Kyoto's first-round but have not taken on new targets in the second commitment period. Other developed countries without second-round targets are Canada, which withdrew from the Kyoto Protocol in 2012, and the United States, which has not ratified. As of November 2018, 122 states have accepted the Doha Amendment, while entry into force requires the acceptances of 144 states. Of the 37 countries with binding commitments, 7 have ratified.
Negotiations were held in the framework of the yearly UNFCCC Climate Change Conferences on measures to be taken after the second commitment period ends in 2020. This resulted in the 2015 adoption of the Paris Agreement, which is a separate instrument under the UNFCCC rather than an amendment of the Kyoto Protocol.
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| The Kyoto Protocol, 1997 |
The main goal of the Kyoto Protocol is to control emissions of the main anthropogenic (human-emitted) greenhouse gases (GHGs) in ways that reflect underlying national differences in GHG emissions, wealth, and capacity to make the reductions.
Under the Kyoto Protocol, 37 industrialized countries and the European Community, the European Union-15, made up of 15 states at the time of the Kyoto negotiations) commit themselves to binding targets for GHG emissions.
The targets apply to the four greenhouse gases carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), sulphur hexafluoride (SF6), and two groups of gases, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and perfluorocarbons (PFCs).
More information: CNN
The six GHG are translated into CO2 equivalents in determining reductions in emissions. These reduction targets are in addition to the industrial gases, chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which are dealt with under the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.
The Protocol was adopted by COP 3 of UNFCCC on 11 December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan.
It was opened on 16 March 1998 for signature during one year by parties to UNFCCC, when it was signed Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, the Maldives, Samoa, St. Lucia and Switzerland. At the end of the signature period, 82 countries and the European Community had signed. Ratification, which is required to become a party to the Protocol, started on 17 September with ratification of Fiji. Countries that did not sign acceded to the convention, which has the same legal effect.
More information: Mtholyoke
Global warming is a fact. Now it's up to liberals to make it a reality.
Hence there is crucial importance in preventing powerful,
greedy free market forces from getting in the way of worsening storms
and rising sea levels. The Kyoto Accord is a good first step.
P. J. O'Rourke
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