Construcción del NPR

The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on 11 December 1997. Due to a complex ratification process, it entered into force on 16 February 2005.

It commits industrialized countries to stabilize greenhouse gas emissions based on the principles of the Convention.

Kyoto Protocol has set binding emission reduction targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European community. Overall, these targets add up to an average five per cent emissions reduction compared to 1990 levels over the five-year period 2008 to 2012.

It was structured on the principles of the Convention. It only binds developed countries because it recognizes that they are largely responsible for the current high levels of GHG emissions in the atmosphere, which are the result of more than 150 years of industrial activity. It placed a heavier burden on developed nations under its central principle: that of "common but differentiated responsibility".

Monitoring Emission Targets

The targets cover emissions of the six main greenhouse gases, namely:

Carbon dioxide (CO₂);

Methane (CH₄);
Nitrous oxide (N₂O);

Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs);

Perfluorocarbons (PFCs); and

Sulphur hexafluoride (SF₆)

Country Target

(1990 - 2008/2012)

EU-15, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, -8% Estonia, Latvia, Liechtenstein,

Lithuania, Monaco, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland

US -7% Canada, Hungary, Japan, Poland -6% Croatia -5% New Zealand, Russian Federation, Ukraine 0 Norway +1% Australia +8% Iceland +10%

The goals of Kyoto were to see participants collectively reducing emissions of greenhouse gases by 5.2% below the emission levels of 1990 by 2012.

While the 5.2% figure is a collective one, individual countries were assigned higher or lower targets and some countries were permitted increases.

Under the Protocol, countries' actual emissions have to be monitored and precise records have to be kept of the trades carried out. This included:

Registry system tracks and records transactions committed by Parties. The UN Climate Change Secretariat, based in Bonn, Germany, keeps an international transaction log to verify that transactions are consistent with the rules of the Protocol.

Reporting is done by Parties by way of submitting annual emission inventories and national reports under the Protocol at regular intervals.

A compliance system ensures that Parties are meeting their commitments and helps them to meet their commitments if they have problems doing so.

• The Kyoto Mechanisms

Under the Treaty, countries must meet their targets primarily through national measures. However, the Kyoto Protocol offers them an additional means of meeting their targets by way of three market-based mechanisms.

The Kyoto Protocol has put in place three flexibility mechanisms to reduce emission of Green House Gases. Although the Protocol places maximum responsibility of reducing emissions on the developed countries by committing them to specific emission targets, the three mechanisms are based on the premise that reduction of emissions in any part of the globe will have the same desired effect on the atmosphere, and also that some developed countries might find it easier and more cost effective to support emissions reductions in other developed or developing countries rather than at home.

The three mechanisms are Joint

implementation, Emissions Trading and Clean

Development mechanisms Joint Implementation

Through the Joint Implementation, any Annex I country can invest in emission reduction projects (referred to as joint implementation project) in any other Annex I country as an alternative to reducing emissions domestically.

Two early examples are change from a wet to dry process at a Ukraine cement works, reducing energy consumption by 53 per cent by 2008-2012; and rehabilitation of a Bulgarian hydropower project, with a 267,000 ton reduction of CO equivalent during 2008-2012.

Emissions Trading

Emissions trading are a market-based approach used to control pollution by providing

economic incentives for achieving reductions in the emissions of pollutants.

Under Kyoto protocol a limit or cap on the amount of a pollutant that can be emitted was limited for the countries. The limit or cap is allocated or sold to firms in the form of emissions permits which represent the right to emit or discharge a specific volume of the specified pollutant. The total number of permits cannot exceed the cap. Firms that need to increase their emission permits have to buy permits from those who require fewer permits.

The transfer of permits is referred to as a

trade. In effect, the buyer is paying a charge for polluting, while the seller is being rewarded for having reduced emissions.

Clean Development Mechanism

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) allows developed country with an emission reduction or emission-limitation commitment under the Kyoto Protocol to implement an emission reduction project in developing countries as an alternative to more expensive emission reductions in their own countries. In exchange for the amount of reduction in emission thus achieved, the investing gets carbon credits which it can offset against its Kyoto targets. The developing country gains a step towards sustainable development.

To get a CDM project registered and implemented, the investing country' has to first take approval from the designated national authority in the host country, establish. "Additionally", define baselines and get the project validated by a third party agency, called a Designated Operational Entity (DOE). The Executive Body of CDM registers the project and issues credits, called Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) or carbon credits, where each unit is equivalent to the reduction of one metric tonne of CO₂ or its equivalent. There are more than 4200 CDM projects in the pipeline as on 14.3.2010. The expected CERs till the end of 2012 was 2,900,000,000

The "Additionality" clause in a CDM project

The feature of "additionality" is a crucial element of CDM project it means that the industrialized country that is seeding to establish

the CDM project in the developing country and earns carbon credit from it has to establish that the planned carbon reductions would not have occurred on its own, in the absence of the CDM project. They have to establish a baseline of the project. Which is the emission level that would have been there in the absence of the project? The difference between this baseline level and the (lower) emission level achieved as a result of the project is the carbon credit due to the investing country i.e. CER units generated under the CDM will only be recognized when the reductions of greenhouse gas emissions are additional to any that would occur in the absence of the certified project activity.

The risk of "false Credits" is a cause for concern with regard to CDM projects i.e. a project does not actually offer an additionality and the reduction in emission would have happened anyway even without the project.

The mechanisms help stimulate green investment and help Parties meet their emission targets in a cost-effective way.

• Adaptation

The Kyoto Protocol, like the Convention, is also designed to assist countries in adapting to the adverse effects of climate change. It facilitates the development and deployment of techniques that can help increase resilience to the impacts of climate change.

The Adaptation Fund was established to finance adaptation projects and programmes in developing countries that are Parties to the Kyoto Protocol. The Fund is financed mainly with a share of proceeds from CDM project activities.

The Kyoto Protocol is generally seen as an important first step towards a truly global emission reduction regime that will stabilize GHG emissions, and provide the essential architecture for any future international agreement on climate change.

By the end of the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012, a new international framework needs to have been negotiated and ratified that can deliver the stringent emission reductions, the

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has clearly indicated, are needed.

While almost every country in the world has signed the Kyoto Protocol, the signature alone is symbolic; a token gesture of support. Ratification

carries legal obligations and effectively becomes a contractual arrangement.

Australia negotiated hard when the Kyoto Protocol was being developed; in fact it was to be allowed an 8% increase in emissions. The excuse - it will be bad for Australia's economy, the same reasoning the USA uses.

Annex I, Annex II countries and Developing Countries

Parties to UNFCCC are classified as:

Annex I countries - industrialized countries and economies in transition.

Annex II countries - developed countries which pay for costs of developing countries. Annex I countries which have ratified the Protocol have committed to reduce their emission levels of greenhouse gases to targets that are mainly set below their 1990 levels. They may do this by allocating reduced annual allowances to the major operators within their borders. These operators can only exceed their allocations if they

buy emission allowances, or offset their excesses through a mechanism that is agreed by all the parties to UNFCCC. Annex II countries are a sub-group of the Annex I countries. They comprise the OECD members, excluding those that were economies in transition in 1992. Developing countries are not required to reduce emission levels unless developed countries supply enough funding and technology. Setting no immediate restrictions under UNFCCC serves three purposes: it avoids restrictions on their development, because emissions are strongly linked to industrial capacity

they can sell emissions credits to nations whose operators have difficulty meeting their emissions targets

they get money and technologies for low- carbon investments from Annex II countries. Developing countries may volunteer to become Annex I countries when they are sufficiently developed.