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17/11/2000 In 1992, world leaders met at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (also known as the 'Earth Summit') in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. One of the outcomes of this conference was the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), a convention aimed at preventing the harmful effects of climate change by reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other 'greenhouse' gases. The industrial nations agreed to reduce their emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000. In
1997, the third Conference of the Parties (COP 3) to the UNFCCC
took place in Kyoto, Japan. On 11 December 1997 the COP adopted
the text of the Protocol to the UNFCCC - the Kyoto Protocol - which
took a further step against climate change. Industrial nations agreed
to cut their collective greenhouse gas emissions to 5 per cent below
1990 levels in the period What is perhaps most significant about the Kyoto Protocol however is that the Kyoto participants decided that industrial countries need not meet their reduction commitments using domestic measures only. The Protocol provided 3 mechanisms by which they could reduce emissions in co-operation with other countries. The first is Joint Implementation, which allows industrial nations to invest in projects intended to cut emissions in other industrial nations. This could be useful if one country has superior technology for example, or could achieve greater reductions for less cost. The country funding the project from abroad could then take credit for the reduction - even though this did not occur within its own boundaries - and thereby reduce its domestic commitments. The second is the Clean Development mechanism. It works in the same way as Joint Implementation, except that industrial nations can fund projects in developing nations to reduce emissions, provided that these projects contribute to sustainable development in the country where they are taking place. The third mechanism, International Emissions Trading, allows countries that can easily meet their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol to sell parts of their emissions allowance to other industrial countries that would find it difficult or impossible to meet their commitments otherwise. Although the Kyoto Protocol sets out the fundamental ideas and principles of such mechanisms however, it does not provide detailed rules about implementation. Other issues such as the monitoring of emission reductions, the use of carbon 'sinks' as a mechanism to meet commitments, the technical and financial support that developing countries can expect from industrial nations, and possible penalties for non-compliance to the Protocol, also require further attention - with many nations reluctant to ratify the Protocol until these details have been clarified. This clarification is one of the prime objectives of the Sixth Conference of the Parties to the Climate Change Convention (COP 6) currently taking place in the Hague, the Netherlands between 13 and 24 November. Representatives from more than 150 governments are participating in the Conference which is being chaired by the Dutch Environment Minister Jan Pronk When
the Kyoto Protocol was opened for signature from 16 March 1998 to
15 March 1999 at the UN Headquarters in New York, it received 84
signatures. To date it has been ratified by less than half of these
signatories and has therefore not yet come into force. It will do
so only when it has been ratified by 55 states producing a total
of 55 per cent of the world's carbon
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