The Kyoto Protocol
Climate Justice and Climate
Negotiations
The Kyoto Protocol
The next substantial development in the international climate negotiations
was the Kyoto Protocol, which was developed at COP3 in 1997. The Kyoto
Protocol established legally binding emissions reductions targets for
Annex I countries (contained in Annex B of the Protocol). The Kyoto Protocol
is yet to come into force, as Parties are still establishing the details
of how to implement the Protocol. While the Kyoto Protocol sets agreed
targets, the methods of achieving these targets is yet to be agreed upon.
These parameters were to be agreed upon at COP6 in The Hague in November
2000. Parties at COP6 were unable to come to agreement on issues such
as:
The use of 'Flexible Mechanisms'. Flexible Mechanisms in the Kyoto Protocol are: Joint Implementation (JI); the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM); and Emissions Trading (ET). The latter two issues are those that will most affect least developed countries.
Equity and the Kyoto Protocol
The main problem with the Kyoto Protocol according to some commentators
is that global consensus was not reached as to how to achieve emissions
reductions.
Climate Justice activists agree that equity and everybody¹s rights to
equal environmental space should be starting points for an international
framework for emissions reductions targets, and that no person should
be denied the possibility of surviving climatic changes because of poverty,
race, class, gender, religion or geographical location. Environment Non-Government
Organisations, supported by developing countries, put forward reduction
models based on per capita quotas as this best aligned with fair share
principles. In establishing the emissions reductions targets in the Kyoto
Protocol, historical emissions were the starting point and political negotiations
played a major role.
That said, the Kyoto Protocol is nonetheless a significant step in the
climate negotiations as it sets legally binding emission reduction targets
for the first time. Therefore, it is vital to examine the issues of equity
within the Protocol, both regarding its implementation and ratification.
As the Kyoto Protocol sets reduction targets only for the period 2008-2012,
and only for Annex I countries, it is possible that the issue of how to
decide on targets for developing (i.e. Non-Annex I) countries may be established
at a subsequent point in negotiations. If the Kyoto Protocol is going
to be an 'important first step', it must be an equitable first step.
