Kyoto Protocol

Kyoto protocol is an international treaty adopted at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) between developed nations for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It aimed at tackling the rising global temperatures by decreasing the emissions in the Earth’s atmosphere.

This protocol got based on an international agreement - UNFCCC of 1992.  And therefore, it took shape in 1997 and came into effect in February 2005.  A total of 192 members sanctioned the treaty by the end of 2012. The global community required only developed countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions based on various responsibilities.

• The Kyoto protocol definition can be an international agreement among nations to reduce carbon release to reduce global warming by up to five percent.
• This protocol failed because only developed nations were responsible for reducing their carbon gas emissions, and developing countries were exempt from it.
• However, the main objective of this protocol was to reduce global warming through collective efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
• Hence, the global community created the Paris Agreement in 2015 to help developed countries meet their emission-controlling targets, taking over the Kyoto Protocol.

The Kyoto protocol 1997 is a treaty announced by the UN in 1997 to reduce carbon emissions globally by up to five percent, and it came into force in 2005. Since it got adopted in the Japanese city of Kyoto, it was called the Kyoto Protocol. Moreover, it helps countries meet their emission reduction target. This protocol established a mechanism known as the Kyoto protocol carbon credits. Nations designed the carbon credit system to provide a flexible, cost-effective way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

As a result, to combat rising global temperatures, 192 countries signed the protocol in 2005. Most developing countries quickly signed the agreement because they were exempt from reducing carbon dioxide emissions. However, only some nations, including the United States, either did not sign or did not take part in the Kyoto convention.

Thus, the protocol's primary point is to bind developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emission when global warming is at its peak. The mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol includes emissions trading, joint implementations, and the clean development mechanism. And it was established to assist countries in meeting their emission reduction targets.

Because the protocol needed a suitable mechanism for implementation or a penalty for non-compliance, it failed miserably in its goal of reducing carbon emissions and global warming. Therefore, the protocol died in 2012 as global temperatures rose. In 2015, the global community adopted the Paris Agreement, which replaced the protocol with more ambitious goals and increased international participation. Hence, this agreement includes improved procedures regarding the mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol, as well as increased transparency measures to ensure that countries meet their emission targets.

Although the Kyoto convention related to climate change was established in 1997, it took another eight years to become operational. Therefore, member nations are responsible for fulfilling the following objectives:

• The protocol aimed to reduce industrialized countries' greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Specifically methane, hydrofluorocarbons, nitrous oxide, perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, and carbon dioxide.
• Moreover, It aims to reduce GHG emissions by 5% compared to the 1990 baseline level by 2012.
• As a result, It proposed carbon-emissions trading among the thirty-five countries that signed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change based on the 1990 baseline.
• Hence, this protocol intends to obtain carbon credits from any country that either sponsors green-energy projects or undertakes carbon-reduction projects.
• Finally, a country may be able to offset its treaty obligations by committing to developing carbon-reduction projects in developing countries.

Despite being the most outstanding bureaucratic achievement in the world, the UNFCC failed to meet its objective of reducing the earth's rising temperatures. Its failure is evident in the earth's soaring temperatures over the last few years. Many factors are driving the collapse of this protocol, as listed below:

• The first and most important reason is the exclusion of high-carbon-emitting developing countries such as China from the targeted obligation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs).
• Second, the most developed country, the United States, refused to ratify the protocol, citing the UNFCC's party politics.
• Thirdly, the carbon credit system, intended to provide a flexible way for countries to meet their emission-control targets, has been criticized as vulnerable to fraud and manipulation.
• It failed to address the global redressal of coal burning. Hence, has fewer mechanisms to enforce the protocol, allowing many countries to avoid it while others try to meet GHG emission reduction targets.
• No penalties were in place for countries not complying with the UNFCC.
• Moreover, the protocol did not address the problem of atmospheric CO2 concentrations.

Per this protocol summary, the UNFCC got the right timing but the wrong methods for implementing its points.

This has been a guide to what is Kyoto Protocol & its meaning. Here, we explain it in detail with its objectives, failure, and mechanism. You can learn more about from the following articles –

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