What Is The Kyoto Protocol?

Protecting our planet against climatic change is our collective responsibility as human beings. While LED lighting helps individual homeowners take simple measures towards lowering their carbon footprint, governments must rely on international agreements to regulate the environmental impact of their country as a global entity.

The successful reduction of carbon emissions depends on a mutual understanding being achieved between governments, and these are often only reached following years of painstaking talks and negotiations.

One such example of this inter-governmental agreement process in action took place in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan. Thereafter named the Kyoto Protocol, it has dominated the world energy stage for more than a decade.

Originally brought into existence as an international environmental treaty between 37 countries on 11 December 1997, the Kyoto Protocol’s remit was to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2% over the five year period between 2008 and 2012.

The protocol extended the 1992 UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) however, unlike the convention which ‘encouraged’ nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions; the protocol committed them by legal means.

This was based on the heretofore, hotly-disputed two-fold premise that global warming actually exists, and that man-made CO₂ emissions caused it.

Although the protocol was initially established in 1997, it didn’t come into force until almost eight years later, after it had received the ratification of the 55 countries that precipitated 55% of the world's greenhouse gases. The UK became one of the first countries to ratify, doing so on the 29 April 1998.

Countries that gave their endorsement were and are committed to setting individual targets for reducing the six principle greenhouse gases as identified by the protocol. These are:

• Carbon Dioxide (CO₂);
• Methane (CH₄);
• Nitrous Oxide (N₂O);
• Sulphur Hexafluoride (SF₆);
• Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs);
• Perfluorocarbons (PFCs).

Although the collective target for participating countries was set at 5.2%, the individual target of each country varies. Generally speaking, the more developed countries, also known as Annex I Countries, were expected to take greater responsibility in recognition of their industrial activities over the past 150 years.

Countries such as India and China, both of which are still heavily dependent upon an industrial economy, are entitled to certain leniencies. The UK's target was set at an 8% reduction by 2012.

While all countries were expected to enforce their own national measures for meeting their targets, other mechanisms were put in place to help those who weren’t able to comply.

One example of this is ‘emissions trading,’ which allows countries to share the responsibility for carbon emissions. Administered by the EU ETS (European Union Emissions Trading Scheme), it caps the CO₂ that companies are allowed to emit, and creates a market and a price for carbon ‘allowances’. Covering 45% of EU emissions, it includes energy-intensive sectors and approximately 12,000 installations.

So far, the Kyoto Protocol is a mixed success story. The scientific data supporting its objectives has come under much scrutiny in recent years, for omitting the three countries with the highest share of global carbon-dioxide emissions. China, with a 23% share of global emissions, and India with 5% never signed the treaty, while the United States which generates 14.7% signed but never ratified the deal.

It has, however, demonstrated the preparedness of countries to unite in addressing an issue that affects us all. The recent 2012 climate change conference in Doha successfully extended the commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol until 2020.

Twenty-one countries met their emission targets, but most of these countries were not top emitters. “Kyoto was a first attempt, a testing ground for all these various ideas including these mechanisms like emissions ratings,” notes Jutta Brunnée, an environmental law professor at the University of Toronto in Canada.

Here in the UK, The Climate Change Act was passed in 2008, following our admission to the Kyoto Protocol. It established a framework to develop an economically credible emissions reduction path, and includes the following commitments:

• The act commits the UK to reducing emissions by at least 80% in 2050 from 1990 levels.

• The Act requires the Government to set legally-binding ‘carbon budgets’. A carbon budget is a cap on the amount of greenhouse gases emitted in the UK over a five-year period. The first four carbon budgets have been put into legislation and will run up to 2027.

• The Government has committed to its emissions targets being scrutinised by The Committee on Climate Change.

• The National Adaptation Plan requires the Government to assess the UK’s risks from climate change, prepare a strategy to address them, and encourage critical organisations to do the same.

Whilst these governmental commitments have been set into action to deal with the problem of large scale carbon emissions on the macro level, you can personally affect small changes that will help to bring them about.

One of the most fundamental of these and one which will significantly reduce your carbon emissions is switching to cost-effective, energy-efficient LED lighting for your home or business.

LEDs require considerably less electricity to power them than traditionally used light sources, which means that less CO₂-producing fossil fuels are burned in order to produce it.

LEDs use 90% less power than incandescent light bulbs and, with a life-expectancy of 50,000 hours, will last more than 20 times as long, so you’ll not only reduce your carbon emissions and benefit the environment, you’ll also save enormously on your electricity bill.

To find out more about the benefits of switching to LED Lighting for your home or business, contact one of our customer service advisors on 0116 321 4120 or send an e-mail enquiry to cs@wled.co.uk.

You can also visit our website to check out our full range of energy-saving LED Lighting products on our online store website.