Carmen Bunzl - Universidad Pontificia Comillas

Chapter 1. Introduction 15
4.2 The Kyoto Protocol
It took all of one year for the member countries of the UNFCCC to decide
that the Convention had to be augmented by an agreement with stricter
demands for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. At the first Conference of the
Parties in Berlin, Germany, in 1995, it was decided to begin negotiations for a
second set of commitments by industrialized countries. The “Berlin Mandate”
reiterated the UNFCCC’s “common but differentiated responsibilities” in
effectively exempting developing countries from emission commitments. At the
second COP in Geneva, Switzerland, the United States argued in favour of
binding emission targets. The text of the Kyoto Protocol was finally adopted on
the eleventh day of the ten-day COP in Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997.
The Kyoto Protocol established emission commitments for industrialized
countries for the 2008-2012 time frame. These targets range from -8 per cent to
+10 per cent of the countries' individual 1990 emissions levels "with a view to
reducing their overall emissions of such gases by at least 5 per cent below
existing 1990 levels in the commitment period 2008 to 2012." In almost all cases -
- even those set at +10 per cent of 1990 levels -- the limits called for significant
reductions in projected emissions.
To reduce the burden of compliance on developed countries, the Kyoto
Protocol offered flexibility in how countries may meet their targets. It created
tradable emission allowances for industrialized countries with quantitative
targets, as the basis for an international emissions market. They could also
engage in Jointly Implemented (JI) projects among each other. The agreement
also established the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), a framework to
generate emission reductions in developing countries. Other elements of
flexibility were included: implicit trading over time – short term banking and
borrowing; annual emissions could fluctuate between 2008 and 2012 as long as
the country’s aggregate did not exceed its five year emissions budget; as
commitments were based on a basket of all six types of greenhouse gases, inter-
gas trading would be implicitly allowed.
Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería ICAI Carmen Bunzl Boulet Junio 2008