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The Kyoto Protocol is a global accord that was adopted in 1997 and came into effect in 2005 under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). By lowering greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in industrialized countries, the Protocol seeks to address global warming and climate change.
According to the Kyoto Protocol, developed nations committed to lowering their GHG emissions by 5.2% on average by 2012 compared to 1990 levels. Several strategies, such as emissions trading, collaborative implementation, and the clean development mechanism, were to be used to achieve reductions (CDM).
With the help of emissions trading, nations were able to exchange their emission reduction credits, with those that had surpassed their targets selling credits to others that had not. While the CDM permitted developed countries to invest in GHG reduction projects in developing countries, joint implementation allowed developed countries to fund GHG reduction initiatives in other developed nations.
Being the first legally enforceable agreement on GHG reductions, the Kyoto Protocol was considered as a significant advancement in the worldwide effort to combat climate change. However, several nations did not fulfill their carbon reduction commitments while others completely withdrew from the Protocol, raising questions about its efficiency.
Because of worries about the potential economic effects of the carbon reduction targets, the United States, for instance, signed the Kyoto Protocol but never ratified it. Before the first commitment period's 2012 end, other nations like Canada and Russia left the accord.
Notwithstanding these obstacles, the Kyoto Protocol paved the door for additional global climate change cooperation and served as the foundation for other agreements, such as the Paris Agreement in 2015. The Protocol emphasized the necessity for continued efforts to reduce GHG emissions and ameliorate the effects of climate change on a global scale and showed the significance of taking action against climate change at the international level.
