After several years of negotiations, the Kyoto Protocol finally comes into effect. The name comes from the ancient Japanese city where the negotiations took place in 1997. It is an adjunct to the 1992 UN treaty on climate change. Ratified by 141 nations, it means that 35 industrialised countries are now legally bound to reduce or limit their greenhouse gas emissions, especially carbon dioxide emissions (5.2% before 2012 compared with their 1990 levels). However, the refusal of US (the bigest greenhouse gas polluter on this Earth) and Australia to retify the protocol, limits the impact of this treaty. The developing countries also have obligations under the treaty, which means that fast devloping (and polluting) countries like China and India are exempt.
Global warming: greather threat than terrorism "Source: Greenpeace (http://www.greenpeace.org)"
However, this is indeed a great step in the right direction. As pointed out on the Greenpeace site "Kyoto is not enough. But it's a start."
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