Kyoto Protocol

Important notes on the Kyoto Protocol

• The negotiation of the Kyoto Protocol began at the first Conference of the Parties in Berlin in 1995 and led to the definition of binding emission reduction obligations covering the period 2008-2012;
• The Protocol stipulates that reductions should mainly come through national domestic measures, but leaves the door open for so-called ‘flexible mechanisms’ including an international carbon trading market;
• The United States did not sign the Kyoto Protocol. This is one of the reasons why this agreement is considered a failure.

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The Kyoto Protocol was the first instrument of binding international law produced under the umbrella of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change signed in 1992. The objective of these instruments is to gather formal commitments and draw plans to make the vision of the Convention into reality.
The Kyoto Protocol was the first legal instrument to gather the commitments of a number of countries to reduce emissions of certain greenhouse gases responsible for climate change. After being adopted in 1997, it took eight years for it to enter into force.
The reduction obligations under the Kyoto Protocol are binding, quantified and only addressed to industrialised countries (China was not considered as such at the time). The reduction target is 5% below 1990 levels to be achieved in the period 2008-2012. At the end of this period, the member countries decided to extend the limitations until 2020, creating space for the birth of a new agreement: the Paris Agreement of 2015.