What exactly is the Kyoto Protocol?

Kyoto Protocol

The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The major feature of the Kyoto Protocol is that it sets binding targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European community for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions .These amount to an average of five per cent against 1990 levels over the five-year period 2008-2012.

The major distinction between the Protocol and the Convention is that while the Convention encouraged industrialised countries to stabilize GHG emissions, the Protocol commits them to do so.

Recognizing that developed countries are principally responsible for the current high levels of GHG emissions in the atmosphere as a result of more than 150 years of industrial activity, the Protocol places a heavier burden on developed nations under the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities.”

The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on 11 December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005. 184 Parties of the Convention have ratified its Protocol to date. The detailed rules for the implementation of the Protocol were adopted at COP 7 in Marrakesh in 2001, and are called the “Marrakesh Accords.”

The Kyoto mechanisms
Under the Treaty, countries must meet their targets primarily through national measures. However, the Kyoto Protocol offers them an additional means of meeting their targets by way of three market-based mechanisms.

The Kyoto mechanisms are:

*Emissions trading – known as “the carbon market”
*Clean development mechanism (CDM)
*Joint implementation (JI)

The mechanisms help stimulate green investment and help Parties meet their emission targets in a cost-effective way.

Monitoring emission targets
Under the Protocol, countries’actual emissions have to be monitored and precise records have to be kept of the trades carried out.

Registry systems track and record transactions by Parties under the mechanisms. The UN Climate Change Secretariat, based in Bonn, Germany, keeps an international transaction log to verify that transactions are consistent with the rules of the Protocol.

Reporting is done by Parties by way of submitting annual emission inventories and national reports under the Protocol at regular intervals.

A compliance system ensures that Parties are meeting their commitments and helps them to meet their commitments if they have problems doing so.

Adaptation
The Kyoto Protocol, like the Convention, is also designed to assist countries in adapting to the adverse effects of climate change. It facilitates the development and deployment of techniques that can help increase resilience to the impacts of climate change.

The Adaptation Fund was established to finance adaptation projects and programmes in developing countries that are Parties to the Kyoto Protocol. The Fund is financed mainly with a share of proceeds from CDM project activities.

The road ahead
The Kyoto Protocol is generally seen as an important first step towards a truly global emission reduction regime that will stabilize GHG emissions, and provides the essential architecture for any future international agreement on climate change.

By the end of the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012, a new international framework needs to have been negotiated and ratified that can deliver the stringent emission reductions the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has clearly indicated are needed.

~~The Marrakesh Declaration~~ (245 page pdf).

Rebecca
Country Meadow Ltd.
Eco-Friendly Shea Butter Spa Products

www.countrymeadowltd.com

From our recently added addition over under our Links We Approve of:

Red, Green & Blue

India Continues to Argue Against Emission Cuts Even as Emissions are Set to Quadruple by 2030
Written by Mridul Chadha

The Indian government released a report recently which predicted a fourfold increase in carbon emissions output in the next two decades. According to the government report, India’s carbon emissions would increase to 4 to 7 billion tonnes from last year’s level of 1.4 billion tonnes by 2031.

India’s environment minister, however, preferred to point out another finding in the report. The report predicts almost 100 percent increase in per capita emissions but the minister noted that even with a 3.5 to 4 tonnes per capita output it would remain below the global average. The globally agreed limit of per capita emission for sustainable development is 2 tonnes.

That is the argument that the Indian government has put forward frequently in order to dodge international pressure to reduce its carbon emissions. India maintains that its per capita carbon emissions are way below those of the developed countries and thus it would be unfair to ask it to set mandatory emission reduction targets.

The timing of the report is crucial given that Copenhagen round of climate talks for finalizing the next climate treaty are just three months away. The report noted that even though India is among the four largest producers of greenhouse gases its footprint is very small as compared to China or the United States. The Indian government certainly hopes to dodge the growing international pressure calling it to act boldly to reduce its carbon emissions.

Yet another tool the Indian government would be looking at in order to save itself from the demands of mandatory or even voluntary emission reduction goals is the forest cover. The report stated that India’s forest cover absorbs 11 percent of the carbon emissions produced. India is looking to market its forest reserves as efficient carbon offsetting resource and gain monetary assistance from the developed countries through the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD) credits.

With China in close talks with the United States and considering voluntary carbon emission cuts India is finding itself in a precarious situation. China and India were the face of developing countries’ resistance to emission reduction targets but concentrated diplomatic efforts by the Obama administration have resulted in clear divisions in the developing countries’ camp.

The failure of Kyoto Protocol is widely agreed upon by experts around the world and the next climate treaty could meet the same fate if there is no global effort to reduce carbon emissions. The responsibility rests with both developed and developing countries since the carbon emissions of developing countries are now also reaching alarming levels. It is critical, therefore, that developing countries take steps to reduce the same and make the transition to clean energy systems and the developed countries must provide the technical and monetary help necessary.

Rebecca
Country Meadow Ltd.
Eco-Friendly Shea Butter Spa Products

www.countrymeadowltd.com

World’s First Floating Wind Turbine Opens in Norway
Written by Bryan Nelson

The world’s very first floating fullscale offshore wind turbine has officially been inaugurated in the North Sea off the coast of Norway.

The turbine even has a name: Hywind. It measures 213 feet tall and weighs 5,300 tonnes, and it rests on a floating stand which is filled with water and rocks to provide balast. Three powerful cables anchor the stand to the seafloor.

StatoilHydro, the corporate energy giant which owns Hywind, plans to use it as a test for the next two years before building any more floating wind turbines. But if everything runs smoothly, they hope to set up floating turbines around the world for international partners, locations which are likely to include California, Japan, South Korea and Spain.

The biggest advantage to floating turbines is that they can operate out at sea at depths between 120 and 700 metres, much deeper than conventional offshore turbines. Winds are usually much stronger in deeper seas, meaning the new technology could also generate a lot more power.

And for those people who find wind turbines aesthetically unpleasing, floating turbines put further out to sea also mean they’ll be out of sight.

Currently floating turbines are significantly more expensive to build, but due to their many advantages, StatoilHydro believes that the costs should come down over time. “Our goal is to bring down the price to the level of fixed wind turbines that are currently installed in waters some 60 metres deep,” said Anne Stroemmen Lycke from StatoilHydro.

Hywind should begin fanning over the North Sea and generating electricity within the next couple of weeks.

Rebecca
Country Meadow Ltd.
Eco-Friendly Shea Butter Spa Products

www.countrymeadowltd.com