Kyoto Protocol

        The problem of global climate change due to increasing greenhouse gas concentrations can only be adequately addressed by the united cooperation of our planet's nation-states. As a result, the United Nations has established the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to facilitate global action on this critical issue. The Kyoto Protocol was put forward at a United Nations-sponsored meeting of industrialized countries in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997. This legally binding treaty associated with the UNFCCC proposed that industrialized countries would reduce their combined greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2% relative to 1990 levels, to be achieved sometime between 2008 and 2012. Greenhouse gases covered by this agreement included carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride, and various fluorocarbon compounds. Specific target emission changes included 8% reductions for the European Union and some other countries, 7% for the United States, 6% for Japan and Canada, 0% for Russia, and increases for Australia (8%) and Iceland (10%).

        Under the terms of the Kyoto Protocol, ratification would occur only if the combined 1990 emissions of countries signing the agreement were 55% or more. On November 18, 2004, this objective was achieved, and the Kyoto Protocol was ratified with the signing of Russia and Canada. As of February 2005, 141 countries have ratified the agreement. Yet a few countries refuse to sign the protocol for various reasons. Two industrial countries from this group include the United States and Australia. The United States refused to sign the agreement for two main reasons: 1) fear that implementing it would cause too much economic damage in the United States, and 2) because the agreement did not require developing countries to commit to emissions reductions.

        Canada became the first signatory to officially withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol in 2011. This action was taken to avoid the enormous financial penalties Canada would have to pay for non-compliance. Under the original agreement, Canada promised to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 6% below the 1990 level by 2012. However, environmental accounting revealed that 2009 emissions were about 17% greater than in 1990. Canada's decision to withdraw its compliance drew a negative response from many of the other signatories of the Kyoto Protocol.

        In the winter of 2011, the world's nations gathered again to discuss mitigating human-caused climate change and the Kyoto Protocol. The focus of this meeting was to negotiate new pledges to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The commitments associated with the initial Kyoto Protocol negotiations ended in 2012. However, this meeting did not end with an agreement on a new second commitment period to mitigate climate change. Instead, national negotiators agreed to a new deal by 2015, which would take effect in 2020. Despite the unfortunate delay in promptly addressing this problem, China, India, and the USA did agree to participate in the second commitment deliberations.

        So will the Kyoto Protocol solve the problem of future global warming? Many scientists believe that the targets set in the Kyoto Protocol made very little difference. Scientists also suggest that global emissions need to be reduced to zero to stop human-caused global climate change. As previously mentioned, the agreement aims to reduce emissions from industrialized countries only by about 5%. Nonetheless, the Kyoto Protocol should still be considered an essential first step toward solving the environmental problem of human-caused climate change.

Conference of the Parties - Paris Agreement

        An official meeting of all the nations involved in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is held annually and called theConference of the Parties. This annual event began in 1995 to ensure the process of mitigating human-caused global climate change remained ongoing as governments considered new information and recommendations from the IPCC Assessment Reports. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted at the third Conference of the Parties, held in Kyoto, Japan.

        At the twenty-first Conference of the Parties meeting in Paris, France (from November 30 to December 11, 2015), the Paris Agreement was negotiated and, afterward, signed by 177 parties (nation-states) on April 22, 2016 (Earth Day). The main goal of this latest climate change treaty is to create a legally binding second commitment agreement to reduce and eventually eliminate human-caused greenhouse gas emissions, and to restrict future annual mean global temperature increases to well below the critical 2.0°C (3.6°F) pre-industrial level threshold identified by climate scientists. Specifically, nations that sign and ratify the Paris Agreementwill make a concerted effort to limit global warming to 1.5°C (2.7°F) above the pre-industrial level. This focus on limiting future temperature increases is quite different from the Kyoto Protocol, which focused only on minor reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

        As part of the Paris Agreement, individual nations have developed updated plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change, which will be implemented upon ratification. Some of our planet’s largest greenhouse gas emitters have made significant pledges to limit human-caused climate change. Some of the promises to cut greenhouse gas emissions include: the European Union will make a 40% cut in emissions relative to 1990 levels; the United States between 26-28% emissions reduction; Canada will try to achieve a 30% reduction below 2005 levels over the next 15 years; and China agrees to start reducing emissions in 2030. 

        By February 2023, 196 states representing 98% of our planet’s greenhouse gas emissions had ratified the agreement. Three states, Iran, Libya, and Yemen, have signed but not ratified. On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to withdraw the USA from the Paris Agreement. This withdrawal took effect on January 27, 2026. The USA accounts for about 13% of the carbon dioxide currently released into the atmosphere.