Kyoto protocol

                                  An international agreement, reached in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, which extends the commitments of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.The Protocol established specific targets and timetables for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to be achieved by the framework’s signatories. The United States , Japan and 82 other countries agreed on the need for an average 5.2 per cent reduction in industrialized countries’ 1990 emissions by the year 2012, to slow global warming due to the greenhouse effect. The reductions are not the same for all countries but depend on the degree of economic development, population, climate and size.

                                   The Kyoto Protocol, negotiated by more than 160 nations in December 1997, aims to reduce net emissions of certain greenhouse gases (primarily carbon dioxide (CO₂)). Each of the participating developed countries must decide how to meet its respective reduction goal during a five-year period (2008-2012); but specific ground rules remain to be worked out at future negotiating sessions.

                                 The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan. It contains legally binding commitments, in addition to those included in the UNFCCC countries  agreed to reduce their anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions (CO2, CH4, N2O, HFCs, PFCs, and SF6) by at least 5% below 1990 levels in the commitment period 2008 to 2012. The Kyoto Protocol has not yet entered into force (April 2001).

- Courtesy by : greenhouse.gov.au