ABSTRACT
The Kyoto Protocol established a legally binding commitment to reduce greenhouse gases. These are acknowledged on the basis of available scientific evidence and observation to be a primary cause of climate change and global warning. Kyoto commits participants to strive to keep the rise in global temperatures to less than 2 degree celsius above preindustrial levels. This target was confirmed and reinforced at the COP21 world climate conference in Paris in December 2015 which was tasked with setting the framework for global climate action once the Kyoto protocol runs out in 2020. Like other leading industrial powers at Kyoto, the EU accepted a target for reducing its GHG emissions, principally of carbon dioxide. It pledged to cut them to 8 per cent below 1990 levels by 2008-12 a target it comfortably achieved. It then proceeded to set even more ambitious reduction targets for 2020 and beyond.
