Kyoto Protocol: why it was fundamental, 25 years later

The framework agreement, as anticipated, recognized the special needs of developing countries, with the sense of not hindering its economic growth. Annex 1 contains a list of countries which, on the basis of article 12, would have been required to send regular reports listing the measures adopted to reduce greenhouse gases. These are essentially industrialized countries (including Italy) together with those of the former Soviet bloc (the newly formed Russian Federation and the countries of the former Warsaw Pact), which at the time were commonly referred to as “second world” due to the presence of an industry that is in some way started. The cardinal principlewhich will characterize all the climate negotiations to follow, albeit to different degrees, is that industrialized countries are recognized as primarily responsible for the concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. It is important to note how they are missing – and it will be a relevant fact until today – large States such as China, India and Brazil.

Buy and sell permits to emit CO₂ makes more and more

In 2050, they could generate a trillion dollars a year. For this reason, at Cop27, the United Nations climate conference in Egypt, the states aim to find an agreement to regulate international markets. The challenges open to negotiations

The Kyoto Protocol

In 1995, the UNFCCC participants meet in Berlin at the first Conference of the parties on climate (Cop1) in order to define the main objectives regarding greenhouse emissions. So we come to 1997, when, on 11 December in Kyoto, the homonymous protocol is signedwhich set plans for reduction of emissions for 37 industrialized countries and with economies in transition. These are the countries included in Annex B, a list which substantially reflects the list of the 1992 Convention.

The treaty included the obligation to reduce emissions of six greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride). The main feature of the Kyoto protocol is that it establishes binding and qualified objectives: reduce emissions by at least 5% compared to 1990 in the period between 2008 and 2012.

The Kyoto protocol would enter into force on February 16, 2005: for the mechanism to take effect, ratification was required by no less than 55 signatory states and that the states that had ratified it produced at least 55% of global polluting emissions. Condition, the latter, achieved only in November 2004, with the completion of the accession by Russia.

The Kyoto protocol prescribes that the reduction must take place essentially through national measures, but also provides for a series of market-based mechanisms, the so-calledflexible mechanisms“. It can be said that the carbon market was “invented” in the Japanese city, which would then be perfected in Marrakech in 2001 and from there to Glasgow. There are three “flexible mechanisms”: clean development mechanism, joint implementation and emissions trading.

At Cop27 comes the agreement to compensate for the damages of the climate crisis

The European Union and the African bloc make the difference at the negotiating tables. Historical go-ahead to the sui fund loss and damage. For the rest, little progress has been made and we remain stuck at a year ago. The role of the fossil fuel lobby weighs heavily

Successes and criticisms

“Surely the Kyoto protocol represented a fundamental step for climate policy – says Stefano Caserini, professor of climate change mitigation at the Milan Polytechnic and founding member of the Italian Climate Network study center -. In fact, it is It was the first moment in which the large emitters made reduction commitments of emissions“.