The Kyoto Protocol

Before the establishment of the Paris Agreement in 2015, the world's only legally binding instrument for cutting greenhouse gas emissions was the 1997 Kyoto Protocol under the UN Framework Convention on Climate change (UNFCCC).

The Protocol was ratified by 192 of the UNFCCC Parties, including the EU and its member countries. However, because many major emitters were not signatories, the Kyoto Protocol only covered about 18% of global emissions.

The Kyoto Protocol’s top decision-making body was the Conference of Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP). All Parties to the Protocol were represented. Governments that were not Parties attended as observers.

Kyoto 1st commitment period (2008–2012)

In the first commitment period of the Protocol (2008-2012), participating countries committed to reduce their emissions by an average of 5% below 1990 levels.

The EU and its member countries – 15 at the time the legislation was adopted (the 'EU-15') – went beyond this and committed to an 8% cut for the Union as a whole.

National targets under Kyoto 1

As the Protocol allowed groups of countries to meet their targets jointly, the EU's overall 8% reduction was broken down into legally binding national targets, also known as quantified emission limitations or reduction commitments (QELRCs). These targets were tailored to the relative wealth of each Member State at the time, under the "burden sharing" agreement, included in the decision approving the Kyoto Protocol (Decision 2002/358/EC).

The QELRCs were expressed as percentages of emissions in a chosen base year and translated into an exact national cap on greenhouse emissions (expressed in tonnes of CO₂-equivalent) for the whole 2008-2012 period.

Similar individual targets were set for countries that joined the EU after the Protocol was adopted – except for Cyprus and Malta, which were not assigned targets.

EU reductions achieved under Kyoto 1

The EU and its Member States met their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol's first commitment period (2008-2012).

For the whole period, the total emissions of the EU Member States (without Cyprus and Malta, which had no targets) were 23.5 gigatonnes of CO₂ equivalent. This is equivalent to a reduction of around 19% below the base year in the period 2008-2012 domestically, without counting the additional reductions coming from carbon sinks (LULUCF) and international credits.

The EU-15 achieved an overall cut of 11.7% domestically, without counting the additional reductions coming from carbon sinks (LULUCF) and international credits.

Detailed targets below

Kyoto 2nd commitment period (2013-2020)

In the second period, the EU, some other European countries and Australia agreed to make further emissions cuts.

For their part, the EU countries (together with Iceland) agreed to meet a joint 20% reduction target compared to 1990 (in line with the EU's own emissions reduction target of 20% by 2020).

Changes from Kyoto 1st period

• New rules were introduced on how developed countries are to account for emissions from land use & forestry
• One more greenhouse gas was covered (meaning 7 in total) – nitrogen trifluoride (NF3).

Reaching the target

The joint 20% commitment was shared between these 29 countries and the EU, along the lines of prior commitments in each sector of the economy:

• The EU was responsible for emissions in sectors covered by the emission trading system (ETS).
• Each country was responsible for its national emissions in the sectors outside the ETS.

The measures needed for the EU and its member countries to deliver on the reduction commitment were put in place through the 2020 Climate & Energy Package.

The EU over-achieved on its reduction target, with GHG emissions falling by 31% in 2020 as compared to 1990.

Surplus emission rights (AAUs)

The significant surplus of emission rights (known as "assigned amount units" or AAUs) for certain countries from the 1st Kyoto Protocol period had threatened to undermine incentives to meet emissions targets in the new period.

To prevent this, a limit was set on how much could be carried over from the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol into the second period. 

The EU, its member countries and all other potential buyers — Australia, Japan, Liechtenstein, Monaco, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland — issued political declarations that they would not purchase these AAUs.

EU implementation of Kyoto 2nd period

This requires the EU to ratify the Doha Amendment to Kyoto.

The process involves the following acts, all from 2013:

• Proposal for a Council Decision on the Doha Amendment (2013)
  Annex I, Annex II, Appendix
• Proposal for a Regulation – technical implementation of Kyoto Protocol

More on EU ratification of Kyoto 2^nd period

Documentation

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