Environmental Legislation & The Kyoto Agreement

For Environmental Legislation see the link below to “NetRegs”, which is a partnership between the UK environmental regulators and is a website that provides comprehensive and clear web-based guidelines on how to comply with waste management legislation.

http://www.netregs.gov.uk/netregs/legislation/287972/652894/?version=1&lang=_e

The Kyoto Protocol to control climate change became international Law on 16 February 2005 after seven years of debate between leaders, politicians and scientists.  It was drawn up in Kyoto, Japan in 1997 to implement the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change.

The two main countries which were unwilling to ratify the agreement were the USA and Australia.  The USA which is the world’s largest greenhouse gas polluter stated that signing up would ruin the economy though they would back emissions reductions through voluntary action and new energy technologies.  Australia, which has a large coal industry, supports the US view and has also opted out.  The Australian government has instead developed its own scheme called "The National Greenhouse Strategy".

The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement setting targets for industrialised countries to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.  These gases are considered at least partly responsible for global warming.

The final ratified agreement means Kyoto will receive support from participating countries that emit 61.6% of carbon dioxide emissions.  The protocol is officially the first global legally binding contract to reduce greenhouse gases.

Now the agreement is law, if any of the participating countries exceed their proposed 2012 target, they will then have to make the promised reductions from the 2012 target and an additional 30% more in the next period.  The EU and Japan have already promised to reduce to pollution by 8% from their respective 1990 levels.

Individually, each country has developed its own method to meet its targets.  The EU has setup a market by which 12,000 factories and power stations are given a carbon dioxide quota.  If they exceed this amount they can purchase extra allowances or pay a financial penalty.  If they fall below the amount they can sell on the extra quota.