What is the Kyoto Protocol and how is it supposed to address global warming?
The Kyoto Protocol, an international and legally binding agreement to reduce global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, entered into force on 16 February 2005. It has been ratified by 141 states, including all major industrialised countries except the United States, Australia and Monaco. The Kyoto Protocol is an amendment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The UNFCC is an agreement to reduce GHG emissions, especially carbon dioxide, and was signed in Rio at the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992. However, by 1996 it was clear that little progress had been made, and scientists and environmental non-governmental organisations (NGOs) called for a renewed effort to combat global warming. Part of the problem was that the UNFCCC did not articulate specific targets for reductions. The result was a conference of the Rio signatories in Kyoto, Japan in December 1997, where they committed to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and fiv
