Does Paris Agreement Replace Kyoto Protocol?

By Robert Palmer

The Paris Agreement and Kyoto Protocol are two international treaties that aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change. While they share a common goal, they differ in their approach and scope.

What is the Kyoto Protocol?

The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty that was adopted in 1997 and went into effect in 2005. It is a legally binding agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that sets Targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions for industrialized countries.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, participating countries agreed to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 5.2% below their 1990 levels by the year 2012. The Targets were different for each country, with developed countries having more ambitious Targets than developing countries.

To achieve these Targets, the Kyoto Protocol introduced three mechanisms:

Emissions trading: This allows countries that have exceeded their emission reduction Targets to sell their excess allowances to other countries that are struggling to meet their Targets.

Clean Development Mechanism: This allows developed countries to invest in clean energy projects in developing countries as a way of offsetting their own emissions.

Joint Implementation: This allows developed countries to invest in clean energy projects in other developed countries as a way of offsetting their own emissions.

What is the Paris Agreement?

The Paris Agreement is an international treaty that was adopted in 2015 and went into effect in 2016. It is also under the UNFCCC but differs from the Kyoto Protocol in several ways.

Firstly, unlike the Kyoto Protocol, which only applied to industrialized countries, the Paris Agreement applies to all countries regardless of their level of development. Secondly, while the Kyoto Protocol set specific emission reduction Targets for each country, the Paris Agreement allows each country to set its own voluntary Targets known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs).

The Paris Agreement aims to keep the global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius. To achieve this goal, all countries are expected to regularly report on their emissions and progress towards their NDCs.

Unlike the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Agreement does not introduce any specific mechanisms for achieving emission reductions. Instead, it encourages countries to take action through a variety of means such as renewable energy deployment, energy efficiency improvements, and sustainable land use practices.

Does Paris Agreement Replace Kyoto Protocol?

No, the Paris Agreement does not replace the Kyoto Protocol as they are both legally binding international treaties that aim to combat climate change. However, the Kyoto Protocol has largely been superseded by the Paris Agreement as many of its provisions have expired or been replaced.

The Kyoto Protocol only covered emission reduction Targets up until 2012, and since then there has been no legally binding agreement for reducing greenhouse gas emissions until the Paris Agreement came into effect in 2016.

In conclusion, while both the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement aim to combat climate change, they differ in their scope and approach. The Paris Agreement is a more inclusive and flexible treaty that allows each country to set its own voluntary Targets while encouraging action through various means. While the Kyoto Protocol introduced specific mechanisms for achieving emission reductions but only applied to industrialized countries with specific Targets.