Gases Reported by Parties for 1990 or Other Base Year in Gigagrams of CO2

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which calls for stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system (UNFCCC, Article 2, 1992), was adopted in 1992 and entered into force in 1994. The UNFCCC did not, however, include binding, quantitative emissions reductions for signatories. In 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted to meet this need.

Under the Kyoto Protocol, 38 countries, known as Annex B countries, agreed to reduce total emissions of six GHGs the six gases listed in Table 2 by an average of 5.2 percent compared to 1990 emissions. The Annex B countries 1990 emissions of the three main GHGs CO₂, CH₄, and N₂O and the percent reductions these countries agreed to are shown in Table 4.3 To take effect, the Protocol requires ratification by 55 countries that account for at least 55 percent of 1990 CO₂ emissions from Annex I countries.⁴

Table 4

Notes: Bulgaria and Romania used 1989 as their base year; Poland used 1988; and Hungary used an average of 1985 - 87. Sources: IPCC's On-line Searchable Database of GHG Inventory Data, accessed at http://ghg.unfccc.int/ on April 17, 2001 and UNFCCC, 1998. Click here for a larger version of this image.