Kyoto Protocol

Rhomberg, Markus

The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization Kyoto Protocol, Hrsg: Ritzer, George

Rhomberg, Markus: Kyoto Protocol, in: Ritzer, George (Hrsg.): The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Globalization, Boston, Blackwell Publishing, 2012: 1244-1254: http://10.1002/9780470670590.wbeog571 (download: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9780470670590.wbeog571/abstract) .

Lexikonartikel

The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement, which for the first time establishes legally binding limits for 37 industrialized countries on emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases (GHG). Over the five-year period from 2008 to 2012, these amount to an average limit of 5 percent against 1990 levels. As of February 2011, 192 states have signed and ratified the Protocol (UNFCC 2011). This Protocol is linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which was opened for signature during the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro. The main objective of the Convention was to stabilize atmospheric GHG concentrations at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference within the climatic system. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan in December 1997 and entered into force in 2005. While the Framework Convention “encouraged” industrialized countries to stabilize GHG emissions, the Kyoto Protocol “commits” them to do so (UNFCC 2011). Thus it provides legally binding emission targets for ratifying countries – targets that are based on a five-year budget period. It contains commitments in three areas: binding emission reduction targets for industrialized countries; a requirement for these countries to implement or further elaborate appropriate policies and measures; and provisions that reaffirm and seek to advance the implementation of certain commitments that pertain to all Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) parties. And it also allows for flexibility mechanisms in the international context by “providing for the use of emissions trading and other market-based mechanisms, including a mechanism for cooperative projects between developed and developing countries” known as the Clean Development Mechanism (Breidenich et al. 1998: 319).

http://10.1002/9780470670590.wbeog571