The Kyoto Protocol, adopted in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997, commits 37 industrialized countries and the European Union to the so-called Kyoto target of reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 5% against 1990 levels, over the 2008-2012 period. At the 2012 United Nations Climate Change Conference there was an agreement to extend the life of the Kyoto Protocol until 2020.
The Protocol was adopted at the Third Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Climate Change in December 1997 and came into force on 16 February 2005.
The main distinction between the Kyoto Protocol and the Convention is that while the Convention encouraged industrialized countries to stabilize emissions, the Protocol sets binding targets.
The Kyoto Protocol introduced three market-based mechanisms, thereby creating what is now known as the carbon market.
The Kyoto mechanisms are:
- Clean development mechanism (CDM)
- Joint implementation (JI)
- Emissions trading (ET).
