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The 1997 climate treaty under the UNFCCC that set legally binding emission-cut targets for developed countries only, and was effectively succeeded by the Paris Agreement.
The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that, for the first time, placed legally binding greenhouse gas emission reduction targets on developed countries. It was adopted at COP3 in Kyoto, Japan on 11 December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005, once enough Annex I countries accounting for at least 55 per cent of their 1990 carbon dioxide emissions had ratified - a threshold crossed only when Russia ratified in November 2004. Its defining feature is asymmetry: acting on the UNFCCC principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, it bound the industrialised Annex I parties to quantified targets while placing no binding cuts on developing countries, India among them. Its second commitment period ended on 31 December 2020, and the Paris Agreement of 2015 has effectively succeeded it.
Type: TreatyBinding targets for developed countries only - 37 industrialised countries plus the European Community accepted quantified emission limitation and reduction commitments averaging 5 per cent below 1990 levels over the first commitment period.
Two commitment periods - the first ran 2008-2012; the Doha Amendment of 2012 created a second running 2013-2020 with an 18 per cent reduction target against 1990 levels for the participating parties.
Common but differentiated responsibilities - developing countries, including India and China, took on no binding cuts, on the reasoning that the accumulated stock of emissions is overwhelmingly the work of industrialised economies.
Three flexibility mechanisms - International Emissions Trading, Joint Implementation and the Clean Development Mechanism - let countries meet part of their targets through market transactions rather than domestic cuts alone.
Six greenhouse gases originally covered: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride. The Doha Amendment added nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) as a seventh.
A Compliance Committee with a facilitative branch and an enforcement branch - an unusually strong compliance design for a multilateral environmental agreement.
1990 is the base year against which reductions are measured, which is why that date recurs throughout climate negotiations.
Frequency: A long-standing UPSC Prelims topic in environment; the Kyoto-Paris comparison is a recurring GS-III Mains theme and the mechanisms appear regularly in objective papers.
The Protocol accepted that a tonne of carbon dioxide does the same damage wherever it is emitted, so it allowed countries to buy reductions made elsewhere rather than make every cut at home. Three routes were created.
International Emissions Trading (Article 17): a country that comes in under its assigned amount may sell the surplus units to a country that is over, creating the world's first international carbon market.
Joint Implementation (Article 6): an Annex I country funds an emission-reduction project in another Annex I country and earns Emission Reduction Units (ERUs) that count against its own target.
Clean Development Mechanism (Article 12): an Annex I country funds a project in a developing country - a wind farm, a cookstove programme, a landfill gas capture plant - and earns Certified Emission Reductions (CERs). This was the only mechanism open to developing countries, and India became one of the largest hosts of CDM projects.
All three require that reductions be real, measurable and additional to what would have happened anyway - the additionality test that became the most-criticised feature of the CDM.
| Aspect | Kyoto Protocol (1997) | Paris Agreement (2015) |
|---|---|---|
| Approach | Top-down: targets negotiated and assigned | Bottom-up: each country sets its own Nationally Determined Contribution |
| Who is bound | Annex I (developed) countries only | All parties, developed and developing |
| Nature of target | Legally binding quantified emission cuts | Legally binding to submit and update an NDC; the target level itself is not enforceable |
| Base year | 1990 | No common base year; each country chooses |
| Compliance | Compliance Committee with an enforcement branch | Facilitative, non-punitive implementation and compliance mechanism |
| Coverage | Shrank sharply as the US stayed out and Canada, Japan and Russia disengaged | Near-universal participation |
| Status | Second commitment period ended 31 December 2020 | In force since November 2016; the operative climate treaty |
11 December 1997, COP3, Kyoto, Japan
16 February 2005
55 parties, including Annex I parties accounting for at least 55 per cent of Annex I 1990 CO2 emissions
2008-2012; average 5 per cent below 1990 levels
37 industrialised countries plus the European Community
Adopted 8 December 2012; second commitment period 2013-2020; 18 per cent below 1990 levels
31 December 2020, after 147 acceptances (threshold of 144 crossed on 28 October 2020)
Six originally; seven after NF3 was added by the Doha Amendment
Signed and ratified 26 August 2002; no binding target as a non-Annex I party
The Kyoto Protocol matters less for the emissions it cut than for what it established and what it revealed. It established that climate commitments could be legally binding, that international carbon markets could function, and that common but differentiated responsibilities could be written into operative treaty text - a principle India has defended in every negotiation since. It revealed the limits of the top-down model: a treaty that binds only part of the world cannot cover a global problem, and the United States' refusal to ratify, followed by Canada's withdrawal and Japan's and Russia's refusal to join the second period, shrank its coverage to a fraction of global emissions. The Paris Agreement's design - universal participation with self-set targets - is a direct response to that failure, trading legal force for political reach.
The Protocol sits within the UNFCCC architecture agreed at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit, alongside the Convention on Biological Diversity and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification - the three Rio Conventions. Its market mechanisms influenced later systems: the European Union Emissions Trading System, launched in 2005, is the largest carbon market descended from the Kyoto model, and Article 6 of the Paris Agreement carries the same idea forward. For developing countries the CDM was the first large flow of climate finance tied to project delivery; for India it funded renewable energy and industrial efficiency projects at a scale domestic policy alone would not then have supported.
Adopted 11 December 1997 at COP3 in Kyoto; entered into force 16 February 2005 after Russia ratified in November 2004.
Binding targets for Annex I (developed) countries only, under the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities.
First commitment period 2008-2012: 37 industrialised countries plus the European Community, average 5 per cent below 1990 levels.
The Doha Amendment (8 December 2012) created the second period 2013-2020 with an 18 per cent target; in force from 31 December 2020.
Three mechanisms: Emissions Trading, Joint Implementation (ERUs, between developed countries) and the Clean Development Mechanism (CERs, developed funding developing).
Six gases at first - CO2, CH4, N2O, HFCs, PFCs, SF6 - with NF3 added as the seventh by the Doha Amendment. Base year 1990.
India ratified on 26 August 2002 with no binding target; the US signed in 1998 but never ratified; Canada announced withdrawal in December 2011.
The Paris Agreement (2015, in force November 2016) effectively succeeded it.
No. India ratified the Protocol on 26 August 2002 as a non-Annex I developing country, which meant no binding emission cuts. India participated instead through the Clean Development Mechanism, hosting a large number of CDM projects.
Entry into force required ratification by parties accounting for at least 55 per cent of Annex I 1990 carbon dioxide emissions. Once the United States refused to ratify, that threshold could not be met without Russia, which ratified only in November 2004, bringing the Protocol into force on 16 February 2005.
Joint Implementation is between two developed (Annex I) countries and produces Emission Reduction Units. The Clean Development Mechanism involves a developed country funding a project in a developing country and produces Certified Emission Reductions.
Its second commitment period ended on 31 December 2020 and it no longer imposes live targets. The Paris Agreement, in force since November 2016, is the operative climate treaty.
Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride - six gases originally, with nitrogen trifluoride added as a seventh by the Doha Amendment of 2012.