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Have the targets been achieved?

Q&A: The Kyoto Protocol

As the Kyoto protocol comes into effect, BBC News Online looks at the agreement which many say is the best hope for curbing the gas emissions thought partly responsible for the warming of the planet.

 

What is the Kyoto Protocol?

 

The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement setting targets for industrialised countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.

 

TARGETED GASES

Carbon dioxide (CO2)

Methane (CH4)

Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)

Perfluorocarbons (PFCs)

Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6)

These gases are considered at least partly responsible for global warming - the rise in global temperature which may have catastrophic consequences for life on Earth.

 

The protocol was agreed in 1997, based on principles set out in a framework convention signed in 1992.

 

What are the targets?

 

Industrialised countries have committed to cut their combined emissions to 5% below 1990 levels by 2008 - 2012.

 

Each country that signed the protocol agreed to its own specific target. EU countries are expected to cut their present emissions by 8% and Japan by 5%. Some countries with low emissions were permitted to increase them.

 

Russia initially wavered over signing the protocol, amid speculation that it was jockeying for more favourable terms. But the country's cabinet agreed to back Kyoto in September 2004.

 

When did the Kyoto Protocol come into force?

 

The Kyoto Protocol became a legally binding treaty on 16 February 2005. It could only come into force after two conditions had been fulfilled:

 

It had been ratified by at least 55 countries

 

It had been ratified by nations accounting for at least 55% of emissions from what the Treaty calls "Annex 1" countries - 38 industrialised countries given targets for reducing emissions, plus Belarus, Turkey and now Kazakhstan.

 

The first target was met in 2002. But following the decision of the United States and Australia not to ratify, Russia's position became crucial for the fulfilment of the second condition. It finally did ratify on 18 November 2004, and the Kyoto Protocol came into force 90 days later - on 16 February 2005.

 

The targets for reducing emissions then become binding on all the Annex 1 countries which have ratified the Protocol. The two main countries which have not are Australia and the USA.

 

Why did Russia decide to back the treaty?

 

The deciding factor appears to have been the political benefits Russia stands to gain. In particular, there has been talk of stronger European Union support for Russia's bid to join the World Trade Organization, when it ratifies the protocol.

 

Fears still persist in Russia that Kyoto could badly affect the country's economic growth.

 

However, Russia will be able to make a lot of money selling credits when emissions trading (see below) gets under way, because its economy collapsed after 1990. The protocol does not require Russia to decrease its emissions from their 1990 level at all, but its output of greenhouse gases has shrunk by nearly 40%.



 

Have the targets been achieved?

Industrialised countries cut their overall emissions by about 3% from 1990 to 2000. But this was largely because a sharp decrease in emissions from the collapsing economies of former Soviet countries masked an 8% rise among rich countries.

 

The UN says industrialised countries are now well off target for the end of the decade and predicts emissions 10% above 1990 levels by 2010.

 

 

The treaty suffered a massive blow in 2001 when the US, responsible for about quarter of the world's emissions, pulled out.

 

There is not even any certainty that the 15 countries that were members of the EU in 1997 will meet their collective target of an 8% reduction on 1990 levels. France, Sweden and the UK have already done so, but others - such as Spain, Portugal and Ireland - have made no progress at all.

 


Date: 2016-01-14; view: 860


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