Global Climate Change: The Kyoto Protocol

Publication Date: July 2005

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Environment

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Abstract:

Negotiations on the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) were completed December 11, 1997, committing the industrialized nations to specified, legally binding reductions in emissions of six "greenhouse gases." The Protocol entered into force on February 16, 2005, and its emissions reduction requirements are binding on the 35 industrialized countries that have ratified it; the United States disengaged from the Protocol in 2001 and has not ratified it.

As structured in the negotiations completed in 1997, this treaty would commit the United States -- if it were to ratify the Protocol -- to a target of reducing greenhouse gases by 7% below 1990 levels during a "commitment period" between 2008-2012. Because of the fact that "sinks," which remove and store carbon from the atmosphere, are counted and because of other provisions discussed in this report, the actual reduction of emissions within the United States that would be required to meet the target was estimated to be lower than 7%.

The United States signed the Protocol on November 12, 1998. However, the Clinton Administration did not submit the Protocol to the Senate for advice and consent, acknowledging that one condition outlined by S.Res. 98, passed in mid-1997 -- meaningful participation by developing countries in binding commitments limiting greenhouse gases -- had not been met. In late March 2001, the Bush Administration rejected the Kyoto Protocol. The United States continued to attend the annual conferences of the parties (COPs) to the UNFCCC, but did not participate in Kyoto Protocol-related negotiations. In February, 2002, President Bush announced a U.S. policy for climate change that will rely on domestic, voluntary actions to reduce the "greenhouse gas intensity" (ratio of emissions to economic output) of the U.S. economy by 18% over the next 10 years.

Following the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol by Russia in November 2004, it entered into force on February 16, 2005, and as noted above, obligates the 35 developed nations that have ratified it to meet their commitments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by the amounts specified in the Protocol over the period 2008 to 2012. A total of 141 nations, including developing countries -- which have no binding obligations under the treaty -- had ratified the Protocol when it entered into force. In order to enter into force, the Protocol had to be ratified by developed (Annex I) nations representing 55% of the level of their emissions in 1990. Only those countries that have ratified the Protocol are bound by its terms; therefore, although the United States had signed the Protocol, it is not bound by its terms, since it has not ratified it.

This report is intended to provide background on the Kyoto Protocol and its terms. It will be updated annually or as events warrant.