From Kyoto to Copenhagen

This chapter discusses the path from COP3 in Kyoto to COP15 in Copenhagen.The Kyoto Protocol, which resulted from COP3, had a period of force until 2012 and accomplished a little bit, but not enough to change the course of the planet. The Kyoto Protocol said that the high income world would take specific responsibility to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by the period 2008-2012 as a group by at least 5% compared to 1990 levels. The main anthropogenous gases covered by Kyoto include carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorine based industrial gases. Water vapor is another very important greenhouse gas, but not put into the atmosphere due to industrial or other human activities. The Clean Development Mechanism enabled developing countries to join the action by saying that they would take action to reduce their own actions voluntary if an Annex 1 country would help to pay for that, and in turn that Annex 1 country was able to exceed the limits in its own domestic emissions reduction. There was a large reduction in emissions from Annex 1 countries, likely attributable to the de-industraiization of the post-Soviet bloc. Canada and Australia failed to meet the Kyoto Protocol entirely. The developing countries experienced a surge of economic development and therefore a surge of greenhouse gas emissions after 1997. At COP 15 in Copenhagen 2009, a 2 degree Celsius limit increase in temperature was put as the boundary beyond which it was extremely dangerous for climate warming to continue. Paris 2015, COP 21, became the new big hope. This video is part of the module Towards a New Climate Change Agreement.

This video is licensed under the CC BY-NC-SA license.