The Kyoto protocolHi and welcome.. The Kyoto protocol is an international agreement to reduce co2 emissions and othergreenhouse gasses world wide. In fact, it's still the only agreement forcountries and governments with the purpose to do something on the climatechange and the global warming problem. With this agreement , the more industrialized countries(Europe,Germany,Japan,Russia..) are forced to reduce the emissions ofgreenhouse gasses with 5,2 % comparing with the level of 1990 . This haveto happen between 2008 and 2012. It all began in the early nineties,when scientists start notice the firstsigns of global warming, and about what they thought was the blame of co2 and othergreenhouse gas emissions that came into the atmosphere.Then, when scientist came foreward with with the warning about the global warming issue and the consequences for the our planet.These scientistconvinced the UN authorities to take precautions concerning greenhousegasses and the influence it will going to have on our climate. The result was that the first international environmental treaty has beenproduced at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development,June 1992, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.. The treaty is intended to achieve"stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at alevel that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with theclimate system".
It took some time to develop the Kyoto protocol, because of the different naturethat every county had. There were the industrialized countries ( Europe with Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, The US ..)and other much less industrialized countries ( Iceland,Norway,New Zealand..) Finaly,The Kyoto protocol entered into force on 16 February 2005. In short It comes to this..Every country has his own individual objective, defined and based on the emissions of greenhouse gasses by these countries in the past. Under Kyoto, industrialized countries agreed to reduce their collective GHG emissions by 5.2% compared to the year 1990. National limitations range from 8% reductions for the European Union , to 7% for the United States, 6% for Japan, and 0% for Russia. The treaty permitted GHG emission increases of 8% for Australia and 10% for Iceland. The protocol defined what and how countries could meet their emission limitation. They can do this by "emissions trading",the Clean Development Mechanism and Joint Implementation European companies can also go for in "Co2 emissions" trading. From their governments, they have the "right" for an certain amount of co2 emissions, defined by that government. A company can choose to invest in clean energy, and take measures to reduces co2 emissions, or they can buy on the co2 market. The companies that trying hard enough and doing better then they have to ( read producing less emissions then defined), then they can sell these to the "not so good students". Here a list all the Signed Countries to the Kyoto protocol .... Now, my personal note...on the "Kyoto protocol" issue. Anyway, I find the protocol rather complicated, but undoubtedly it is annecessarily worldwide commitment and agreement that had to been taken. The pros are: At last the global warming problem has recognized and been handled worldwide. Every step taken in the right direction to reduce the emissions ofgreenhouse gasses is welcome. We'll never will regret this (although,perhaps some countries will regret it not to have joint)agreement. The cons: Like I said before, it's complicated. Not so good students can buy elsewhere. What means: If you have the money,you don't have to worried about the emissions ( or the economy). Just buyand everything OK. Then there's the financial crisis. The global warming problem will becomesecond or third on the list of problems. Companies have other problemsright now then to care about the global warming. And..who will be take countries and companies on the right track again,if they don't follow the rules anymore? Until now, there aren't any problems about the agreement, but it's just athought I had in mind. We'll see what the future brings. Hopefully,countries will continue to fight climate change and continue on the roadthey have turned.
The Webmaster
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