Kyoto Protocol

The Kyoto Protocol is a protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change that establishes legally binding commitments for the reduction of four greenhouse gases (GHGs) and two families of gases produced by industrialized nations. As of May 2009, 183 parties have ratified the protocol, which was initially adopted for use on December 11, 1997, in Kyoto, Japan, and which entered into force on February 16, 2005. Under Kyoto, industrialized countries agreed to reduce their collective GHG emissions by on average 5.2 percent compared with 1990. National limitations range from 8 percent reductions for the European Union and some others to 7 percent for the United States, 6 percent for Japan, and 0 percent for Russia. The protocol limits GHG emission increases to ...