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Help fight climate change With your help, we can reduce the impacts of climate change on our lives, on our environment and on future generations. The Kyoto Protocol is a key first step to help slow the onslaught of global warming and benefit conservation efforts. About the Kyoto Protocol: The Kyoto Protocol goes into effect on Feb. 16, 2005, and legally binds participating industrialized nations to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases over the next decade. So far, 141 countries have ratified the protocol, representing 61 percent of global emissions. These countries include the 25 countries of the European Union, the People’s Republic of China, India, Japan, Canada, Russia and New Zealand. Fourteen countries have signed the Kyoto Protocol but have not ratified it, meaning they do not have to comply. Of those 14 countries, six are among the biggest producers of heat-trapping gas emissions including the United States and Australia. Countries that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol commit to reducing their emissions of six heat-trapping gases: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulphur hexafluoride, HFCs and PCFs which have been linked to global warming. Read more about climate change and the Kyoto Protocol. We Want to Hear from You Tell us what you think about our climate change work. What national or international policies should be implemented to fight climate change? What's New Read about our most recent successes, developments and news on climate change. Impacts of Climate Change Find out how climate change is affecting our planet and the places you care about. What We Do Learn about the Conservancy’s work to stop climate change. What You Can Do Discover simple things you can do to help fight climate change.

A Milestone for Global Warming — The Nature Conservancy’s Statement on the Enactment of the Kyoto Protocol

February 16, 2005 — Today will make history as the first time nations around the world have joined forces to reduce emissions of heat-trapping gases that cause global warming.

The Kyoto Protocol is a key first step to help slow the onslaught of global warming and benefit conservation efforts. But the Protocol alone is not the final answer.

Science shows that global warming is not merely a real threat for the future, but that it is already having a destructive impact on the natural habitats and resources on which we all depend. Global warming is a result of human activities that left unchecked will have serious consequences for this and future generations.

Action must be taken now.

By enacting policies on a national and state level that reduce the emission of heat-trapping gases, the United States can become a leader in the fight against global warming. Such policies will spur innovation and pave the way for U.S. companies to benefit financially by selling clean technologies and reduced emission credits internationally.

Even though companies here in the United States are not subject to Kyoto’s emission caps, U.S. companies that operate in nations complying with the Kyoto Protocol do have to meet those countries’ caps. Until the United States passes its own limits on global warming emissions, innovative companies based here will lose out on opportunities to sell reduced emission credits to companies complying with the Kyoto Protocol overseas.

Additionally, without enacting our own emission limits, U.S. companies will lose ground to their competitors in Europe, Canada, Japan, and other countries participating in the Protocol who are developing clean technologies.

The United States needs to take steps now to maintain its role as a world economic leader while also forging a path to stop global warming and protect the natural habitats and resources we all need to survive.  Global warming emissions from energy production, manufacturing, transportation, and the destruction of forests must be curtailed to ensure the survival of the biodiversity we are working to protect.

To become legally binding, the Kyoto Protocol had to be ratified by at least 55 countries, accounting for at least 55 percent of the total 1990 heat-trapping gas emissions of developed countries. In November 2004, Russia’s ratification enabled the later requirement to be achieved.

The Kyoto Protocol allows “emissions trading” to assist industrialized nations to find the most economic way to meet their emissions reductions targets. The Protocol’s market-based approach allows industrialized nations to buy and sell “emission allowances” with other industrialized nations. In addition, industrialized nations can meet a portion of their targets by purchasing “certified emissions reductions” or CERs from forest restoration, energy efficiency or renewable energy projects in developing nations.

Informal discussions on emission reduction commitments after 2012 are scheduled to begin in May of 2005.

For More Information About the Kyoto Protocol

Statement from The Nature Conservancy on the Enactment of the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol is a key first step to help slow the onslaught of global warming and benefit conservation efforts. But the Protocol alone is not the final answer.

Climate change picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Data © Chris Zganjar/TNC (sunset, Albemarle Peninsula).