This website and its contents were created and compiled by Audrey Bowerman, Cheryl Dietrich, Jeremy Freifeld, Carla Frisch, and Devon Ritter. The authors of this site are students in Scott Kirsch’s Geography 135 class at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during Spring 2006. This site reflects our group’s research into science and environmental politics in global climate change. Specifically, we chose to use the Kyoto Protocol as a central theme (though generally not the direct subject) of our individual investigations.
The Kyoto Protocol is a multilateral agreement for action on global climate change worked out by nearly all of the world’s governments. It is a concrete plan of action that serves as a supplement to the Framework Convention on Climate Change treaty. The Protocol’s aim is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through specific, mandatory reduction targets. Developed countries, as a group, are expected to reduce emissions of 6 specific gases by 5% from 1990 levels. In order to do this, countries can increase carbon sinks, buy or sell emissions credits, or embark on joint emission reduction projects with other countries. Lesser developed countries are not bound to a specific target; however, the Clean Development Mechanism allows developed countries to meet their own targets by sponsoring projects in other countries. These mechanisms are intended to allow countries to meet emission reduction targets with greater efficiency and flexibility. The countries involved in negotiating the treaty adopted it in 1997 but it did not come into force until 16 February 2005.
Full text of the Kyoto Protocol
A summary of the Kyoto Protocol