Act before it is too late
The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement concerning reduction of GHG emissions, which was negotiated during the Third Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in December 1997. The treaty entered into force on 16 February 2005. It obliges countries which ratified the Protocol to reduce their own emissions on average by 5.2% in the period 2008-2012, compared to the year 1990. The average reduction of 5.2% is to be achieved by all countries participating in the Protocol, but commitments by specific countries differ. Most European Union countries are obliged to reduce their emissions by 8%. The Polish target is a 6% reduction compared to the 1988 emission level.
The Protocol foresees mechanisms to help the countries to fulfil their obligations. International trade of the emission reductions allowances and also common realisation of projects resulting in reduction of GHG emissions are so called “flexible mechanisms” allowed by the Protocol. Those mechanisms help to allow reduction of the overall cost of the required GHG emission reduction.
EUROPEAN UNION INITIATIVES
To reach the adopted political targets, especially those concerning the Kyoto Protocol commitments, the European Union implemented the European Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS), allowing companies from specified sectors of the economy to trade CO2 emission allowances. The scheme started in 2005. The CO2 emission allowances are allocated to industry installations emitting large amounts of CO2, e.g. power plants, steelworks, glassworks, cement plants, paper plants. At the end of each trading period the company has to redeem the number of allowances corresponding to the actual CO2 emissions of that company in that year.
In 2007 the European Union put on the political agenda a programme which includes three complementary and synergistic targets to be achieved by 2020:
- 20% reduction of GHG emissions (compared to 1990),
- 20% improvement of energy efficiency,
- increase use of renewable energy sources to 20% of total energy use.
Polish