What is the Kyoto Protocol?
Date: 27-Aug-07
Country: INTERNATIONAL
Here are some frequently asked questions about Kyoto:
* WHAT IS THE KYOTO PROTOCOL?
-- It is a pact agreed by governments at a 1997 UN
conference in Kyoto, Japan, to reduce greenhouse gases emitted
by developed countries to at least 5 percent below 1990 levels
by 2008-12. A total of 175 nations have ratified the pact.
* IS IT THE FIRST AGREEMENT OF ITS KIND?
-- Governments agreed to tackle climate change at an "Earth
Summit" in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 with non-binding targets.
Kyoto is the follow-up and is the first binding global agreement
to cut greenhouse gases.
* IS IT LEGALLY BINDING?
-- Kyoto has legal force from Feb. 16, 2005. It represents
61.6 percent of developed nations' total emissions. The United
States, the world's biggest source of emissions, came out
against the pact in 2001, reckoning it would be too expensive
and wrongly omitted developing nations from a first round of
targets to 2012.
* HOW WILL IT BE ENFORCED?
-- Countries overshooting their targets in 2012 will have to
make both the promised cuts and 30 percent more in a second
period from 2013.
* DO ALL COUNTRIES HAVE TO CUT EMISSIONS BY FIVE PERCENT?
-- No, only 35 relatively developed countries have agreed to
targets for 2008-12 under the principle that richer nations are
most to blame. They range from an 8 percent cut for the European
Union from 1990 levels to a 10 percent rise for Iceland.
* WHAT ARE THESE 'GREENHOUSE GASES?'
-- Greenhouse gases trap heat in the earth's atmosphere. The
main culprit is carbon dioxide, produced largely from burning
fossil fuel. The protocol also covers methane, much of which
comes from agriculture, and nitrous oxide, mostly from
fertiliser use. Three industrial gases are also included.
* HOW WILL COUNTRIES COMPLY?
-- The European Union set up a market in January 2005 under
which about 12,000 factories and power stations are given carbon
dioxide quotas. If they overshoot they can buy extra allowances
in the market or pay a financial penalty; if they undershoot
they can sell them.
* WHAT OTHER MECHANISMS ARE THERE?
-- Developed countries can earn credits to offset against
their targets by funding clean technologies, such as solar
power, in poorer countries. They can also have joint investments
in former Soviet bloc nations.
