Learn About Joint Implementation

The human race has witnessed a lot of progress over the ages. Innovation, technological advancement, modernisation, and industrialisation, all these aspects have acted as a catalyst for that growth. However, we have used a large part of the earth to fulfil our aspirations and make lives easier for ourselves. In doing so, we have left grave scars on nature and exhausted the majority of the resources. Many of our actions have led to global warming.

The good part is that we have started to realise our faults and are trying to take action towards them. One such initiative is the Kyoto Protocol. Under it, the joint implementation has brought countries to live a more ecologically friendly life. 

The Kyoto Protocol has played a prominent role in creating more awareness about the adverse impact of our actions on nature and the ways to resolve them. The joint implementation has helped decrease the emission rate of various developed and developing nations. 

Understanding the Kyoto Protocol is a preliminary step to learning more about joint implementation and emissions trading.

Kyoto Protocol- An Overview 

The Kyoto Protocol is an internationally adopted treaty signed in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan. This treaty binds and calls for countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It expands the UNFCCC or the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The main objective of the Kyoto Protocol was to decrease global warming by aiming to reduce greenhouse gas. 

The protocol believes in self initiatives by countries. It stresses that countries are individually capable of combating climate change. Different economic factors, developmental factors, and planning would determine the varied initiatives by governments. The protocol has emphasised that developed countries decrease their emissions as they are prone to generating excess emissions. 

The Kyoto Protocol conducts strategic and periodic conferences or rounds of discussions. The protocol traces countries’ progress in reducing emission levels in these rounds. Further, with the progress known, it tries deducing the next step in controlling the emission. 

It prominently focuses on reducing different forms of human-emitted gas as a greenhouse gas. There are seven harmful greenhouse gases that the protocol is working toward reducing — carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, methane, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulphur hexafluoride, and nitrogen trifluoride.

The Kyoto Protocol has devised articles discussing different steps and concepts to reduce emissions. The joint implementation is one of the main articles in the protocol and is crucial to ensuring success in curbing emissions.

What Is Joint Implementation In Kyoto Protocol?

The Kyoto Protocol has set three flexible implementations mechanisms. One of these is the joint implementation. The primary purpose of these implementation mechanisms is to enable countries to meet their reduction target and complete the treaty’s obligation. 

The joint implementation is in the sixth article of the Kyoto Protocol. It states that any country that falls in the Kyoto Protocol set of countries can invest in emission reduction projects of other countries. However, they have to be a part of the Kyoto Protocol. 

In this way, the joint implementation would reduce the cost of reducing emissions, which can significantly benefit developing countries, and push them toward participating in emission projects. These emission projects receive Emission Reduction Units or ERU. However, it is a complex process. There is a set of ERU credits that the Kyoto Protocol gives to countries based on their emission reduction goals. This process has been in place since 1990. 

With joint implementation, the Kyoto Protocol tries to mitigate climate change with corporations by different nations. In this way, the countries involved can play a role in decreasing greenhouse gas. 

Another flexible implementation mechanism is emission trading. This implementation mechanism can be understood in the details mentioned below.

What Is Emissions Trading In Kyoto Protocol?

Emissions trading is another flexible implementation mechanism mentioned in the Kyoto Protocol. Emissions trading forms article 17 of the Kyoto Protocol and is a cap and trade policy to reduce emissions and pollution. 

According to the emissions trading mechanism, any country mentioned in the Kyoto Protocol treaty can trade or get emission units. However, the transferring of these emission units is again marked according to the protocol’s mandate. This is known as commitment period reserve or CPR in short. 

The rationale behind emissions trading is to reduce the costs of attaining emissions reduction goals. A country can relocate its emission units or trade them in this mechanism, helping it drop its emission increment. With these emissions trading programs, the goal of reducing greenhouse gas would be achieved. Further, it would also pave the path for countries to find minimal compliance costs to achieve emission reduction. 

These two mechanisms-joint implementation and emissions trading have paved a cost-efficient path for countries to reduce the greenhouse effect with amiability.

Conclusion

The Kyoto Protocol mainly reduces the human-emitted greenhouse gas and achieves the reduced emission targets. Two important flexible mechanisms of the Kyoto Protocol are joint implementation and emissions trading. The joint implementation provides the platform for two countries under the Kyoto Protocol to invest together in emission reduction. Emissions trading is the trade of emission units to meet emission reduction goals by the country or countries. These two mechanisms in the Kyoto Protocol ensure that emission reduction is achieved efficiently and is cost-efficient.