Union Cabinet approves ratification of the Second Commitment Period of Kyoto Protocol

The Union Cabinet, presided by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on 24 January 2017 gave its approval to ratify the Second Commitment Period of the Kyoto Protocol on containing the emission of Green House Gases (GHGs).

The 2nd commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 2012. As of now, 75 countries have ratified the 2nd Commitment Period.

About United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

• The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an international environmental treaty.

• It was negotiated at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June 1992.

• The treaty was entered into force on 21 March 1994.

• The objective of the UNFCCC is to "stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system."

About Kyoto Protocol

• The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty, which extends the 1992 UNFCCC.

• It was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on 11 December 1997.

• It entered into force on 16 February 2005.

• At present, there are 192 parties to the Protocol. Canada withdrew from the protocol effective December 2012.

• It implements the objective of the UNFCCC to fight global warming by reducing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to "a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system."

• Its first commitment period started in 2008 and commenced in 2012.

• At Doha in 2012, the amendments to Kyoto Protocol for the second commitment period were successfully adopted for the period 2013-2020.

• For the measures to be taken after the commencement of the second commitment period, negotiations were held in the framework of the yearly UNFCCC Climate Change Conferences.

• The negotiations resulted in the 2015 adoption of the Paris Agreement. It is a separate instrument under the UNFCCC rather than an amendment of the Kyoto protocol.