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Climate Change and CDM - A succinct legal overview of the
Kyoto Protocol |
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An historic agreement to cut emissions of the
main greenhouse gases which contribute to global warming was
agreed in December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, at the third
Conference of Parties to the Framework Convention.
Industrial nations agreed to reduce their collective
emissions of greenhouse gases by an average of 5.2% from 1990
levels in the period 2008 to 2012. This 5-year period is
referred to as the First Commitment Period.
The Kyoto
Protocol commits developed countries to make legally binding
reductions in their greenhouse gas emissions. Developing
countries will not have targets for the First Commitment
Period. The idea is that developing countries must still be
allowed to grow their economies with low cost energy in order to
“catch up” with developed countries and that the clean energy
technologies developed in the developed countries will in
time, as they become cost effective, be transferred to the
developing countries so that they too can diminish their
dependence on fossil fuels. As will be seen below, CDM is a
mechanism aimed at such technology transfer during the period
that the developing countries do not have targets and possibly
beyond.
The Kyoto Protocol was endorsed by over 160
countries and entered force by February 2005.
Significantly,
the global cut of 5.2% is to be achieved by differential
reductions for individual nations. The European Union,
Switzerland and the majority of Central and Eastern European
nations will deliver reductions of 8%; the US will cut
emissions by 7%; and Japan, Hungary, Canada and Poland by 6%.
New Zealand, Russia and the Ukraine are required to stabilise
their emissions, whilst Australia, Iceland and Norway are
permitted to increase slightly, although at a reduced rate to
"business as usual" scenarios.
The literature often
refers to the “North” and “South” when discussing the
distinction between developed and developing countries. The
terms are roughly synonymous. In the UNFCCC/Kyoto literature a
distinction is drawn between “annex 1” and “non-annex 1”
countries. Annex 1 countries are those with targets and
include the developed, industrialised nations. “Non-annex 1”
countries are developing countries without targets.
The Protocol includes provision for emissions trading
(inter alia through the CDM). The Kyoto Protocol has at its
core the aim to protect the environment by reducing
anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases. One of the ways
in which the Protocol aims to achieve this is by emissions
trading, which means that the Protocol in addition to being an
environmental treaty is also an international trade agreement.
For information on emissions trading, click on the
menu at the left bottom of the page
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