23.2.1. Targets

♤ KP, as it is referred to in short, sets binding emission reduction targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European community in its first commitment period.

♤ It only binds developed countries because it recognizes that they are largely responsible for the current high levels of GHG emissions in the atmosphere, which are the result of more than 150 years of industrial activity.

♤ KP places a heavier burden on developed nations under its central principle: that of “common but differentiated responsibility”.

♤ Overall, these targets add up to an average five per cent emissions reduction compared to 1990 levels over the five-year period 2008 to 2012.

The architecture of the KP regime: What makes KP tick?

♤ The Kyoto Protocol is made up of essential architecture that has been built and shaped over almost two decades of experience, hard work and political will. The beating heart of KP is made up of:

1. Reporting and verification procedures;

2. Flexible market-based mechanisms, which in turn have their own governance procedures; and

3. A compliance system.

♤ So, two things make KP tick.

1. Emissions Reduction Commitments

♤ The first was binding emissions reduction commitments for developed country parties. This meant the space to pollute was limited.

♤ Greenhouse gas emissions, most prevalently carbon dioxide, became a new commodity. KP now began to internalize what was now recognized as an unpriced externality.

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2. Flexible Market Mechanisms

♤ This leads us to the second, the flexible market mechanisms of the KP, based on the trade of emissions permits. KP countries bound to targets have to meet them largely through domestic action— that is, to reduce their emissions onshore.

♤ But they can meet part of their targets through three “market-based mechanisms” that ideally encourage GHG abatement to start where it is most cost-effective--for example, in the developing world. Quite

simply, it does not matter where emissions are reduced, as long as they are removed from the planet’s atmosphere.

♤ The Kyoto Flexible Market Protocol mechanisms:

♤ Joint Implementation (JI)

♤ The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)

♤ Emission Trading