Participating countries in the Kyoto Protocol may contribute towards meeting their targets in three ways over and above action in their own country: emissions trading; the clean development mechanism; and joint implementation.

Emissions Trading

The Kyoto Protocol allows countries to “trade carbon” as a way of meeting their emission reduction targets. If one country reduces its emissions by more than its Kyoto target requires, it can sell its surplus emissions reductions (carbon abatement) to another country. The second country can then exceed its emissions target by this amount. These trades are often referred to as “carbon credits” or “carbon offsets” and they are one way of creating a price on carbon.

Emissions trading uses the principle that the atmosphere is a global commons, and it doesn't matter where the emissions reduction occurs, as long as it occurs. By making the source of emissions reduction flexible, emissions trading allows lowest cost abatement options.

Emissions trading creates a financial value for reducing emissions, which acts as an incentive and can be used to fund carbon abatement projects.

The European Union have implemented their own Kyoto compliant emissions trading scheme to meet their Kyoto targets. (More information)

The International Emissions Trading Association has done a report on Emissions Trading around the world (more information). It shows that in the first 3 quarters of 2006 the EU Emissions Trading Scheme had a value of $19billion US, and had traded 764Mt CO2. (by comparison, Australia's total emissions are 550Mt CO2).

For a critical view of emissions trading: http://www.dhf.uu.se/

If emissions trading is designed well it could help us substantially reduce our greenhouse pollution. If it is designed badly it could be an elaborate way to disguise a lack of action and transfer wealth to polluters. Read the important things to get right for emission trading to be effective here.

Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) allows developed countries to run emission reducing projects in those developing countries who are signatories to the Protocol and then use any emission reductions towards meeting their own targets. The CDM also aims to help developing countries achieve sustainable development and contribute to the emissions reduction objective of the Protocol.

The first projects under the CDM were registered in November 2004. This was followed by a rapid expansion in project development, so that at the start of April 2006 some 181 projects were registered. There are also over 500 additional projects in the pipeline. Although these projects collectively represent around one million mega-tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent abatement by 2012, there are concerns that desirable projects related to renewable low-carbon energy and energy efficiency only account for 29 per cent of the forecast abatement (the remainder are accounted for as reductions in other industrial gases and methane).

For a detailed review of the performance of the Clean Development Mechanism see: Measuring the Clean Development Mechanism’s Performance and Potential” http://iis-db.stanford.edu/pubs/21211/Wara_CDM.pdf.

Joint Implementation (JI)

Joint Implementation (JI) allows a developed country to undertake a project that reduces greenhouse gas emissions in another developed country, and then count the resulting emission reductions towards its own national target.

Deforestation/LULUCF

Processes which remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere are known as carbon "sinks". Under the Kyoto Protocol the removal of greenhouse gas emissions through carbon sinks (known as carbon sequestration – literally storage of carbon) can be used to meet emission reduction targets. The Kyoto protocol treats the growing of new forests as one such carbon "sink", claiming that growing new forests can remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. However, this is problematic because growing a forest can not store carbon for as long as it take for fossil fuels to form (approximately 100,000 years) due to drought, fire, tree die-back etc. Sinks are also likely to be a monoculture (only one species) because of cost factors. Monocultures create ecological and social problems, like rising water tables from eucalypt water use and loss of access to forests and common land once it is locked-up for credits. Also planting trees for carbon credits is an offset for producing emissions when the solution is in achieving a net reduction in GHG emissions from all sectors of the economy.

A more effective carbon conservation measure is the prevention of deforestation. Emissions from logging are in the order of 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Preventing forests from being cleared stops these emissions from occurring. Currently under negotiation is an avoided deforestation mechanism that will provide technological and financial support for developing countries (and big tropical forest loggers) such as Brazil, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and the Congo, to protect their forests from logging and avoid future emissions.

Fore more information on Land Use Change issues and climate change visit http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/LUC.

Technology Transfer

Under the UNFCCC, developed countries are required to share new technologies and solutions with developing countries to help them to reduce their own emissions. Examples of greenhouse gas reduction technologies include renewable energy, energy efficiency, and other pollution reduction measures including improved water management, waste management and air pollution systems.

The discussion of technology transfer has been happening under the UNFCCC within the Expert Group on Technology Transfer (EGTT). This is limited, and has yet to achieve the sort of results we will need to allow developing countries to develop along a low emissions pathway.

Other forums in which technology transfer have been discussed, include the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (link to this section), and the Methane to Markets partnership (http://www.methanetomarkets.org) and the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (http://www.cslforum.org). Although it is not clear how this forum will overcome the intellectual property issues associated with the true transfer of technology to developing countries.

Adaptation for developing countries

All countries of the world will be affected by climate change. But the impacts of climate change will disproportionately affect those societies who have contributed the least to the problem. For example, low-lying Pacific states, collectively responsible for fewer than 0.6% of the world's emissions, face dispossession, as their islands become uninhabitable. For more details on impacts of climate change go to http://www.cana.net.au/socialimpacts/

Developing countries don't have the resources that the wealthy countries have to adapt to the impacts of climate change. They are often cultures that rely on the land (farming and hunting) for subsistence and economic activity. These countries and cultures will be the first to feel the impacts of climate change.

Adaptation programs aim to assess projected impacts of climate change in developing countries and fund projects to counter the impacts of climate change. Climate change adaptation requires successful implementation of measures that are already environmental and development priorities (energy and water conservation, access to energy, flood control, food security, water resources management). Climate change adaptation and development are mutually reinforcing and cannot be considered in isolation.

As developed countries have caused the climate change we have experienced to date, they have a responsibility to finance adaptation programs.

There are 3 adaptation funds within the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol:

• Special Climate Change Fund

• Least Developed Countries Fund This fund was developed to help Least Developed Countries plan for and carry out national adaptation programmes of action (NAPAs).

• Adaptation Fund under the Kyoto Protocol The Adaptation Fund under the Kyoto Protocol is funded by a levy on all CDM projects. The other two funds are voluntary, and have received very small contributions (more information) from developed countries to date. Total pledges to an equivalent of $42m USD have been made to the LDCF, and $38m USD to the SCCF. Compare this to the estimates by the World Bank of the total cost of adaptation, through ‘climate-proofing’ development range between $10bn - $40bn annually.

Link to UNFCCC website on adaptation: http://unfccc.int/adaptation/items/2973.php

A five-year programme of work on the scientific, technical and socio-economic aspects of impacts, vulnerability and adaptation to climate change, has begin under the UNFCCC, addressing the following issues:

• Methodologies, data, and modeling

• Vulnerability assessments

• Adaptation planning, measures and actions

• Integration into sustainable development
  

More detail on the five-year work plan

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) (or Geosequestration)

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), also known as Geosequestration, refers to technologies that capture greenhouse gases and pump them below the earth’s surface for storage. In most instances this technology is being considered for use with coal fired power stations to lesson their CO2 impact.

Current industry and government research is increasingly looking into the storage of carbon dioxide in oil fields as a means of preventing its release into the atmosphere. These developments as part of the discussion of future energy technologies raise many questions from an environmental point of view. NGOs are monitoring them closely.

Among the key concerns NGOs have about carbon capture are:

• Doubts as to whether CO2 storage can really be made permanent. While oil and gas fields are reasonably well understood over periods of a few decades, the long-term performance of seals and the character of other formations such as saline aquifers is much less well understood. CO2 would need to be trapped permanently - meaning at a minimum for thousands of years.

• Continuing our dependence on coal. There are many other problems associated with coal, from health problems to air pollution and the exploitation of developing countries.

• Even if carbon capture and storage helps solve the climate problem, it may delay the uptake of renewable energy sources that offer a more sustainable future. Investment that goes into building carbon capture and storage technology increases our cola infrastructure instead of leading on a more sustainable path through renewable energy investment.
  

Conversely, if done as part of a transition to a hydrogen economy, there are potential benefits. These include reduced air pollution from vehicles and more modern fossil power plants (Integrated Gasification Combines Cycle, or IGCC, for instance), and thus improvements to human health. If carbon capture and storage is combined with biomass fuel, it may also offer the only opportunity to return to pre-industrial levels of atmospheric CO2 concentrations.

Aviation and international shipping (bunker fuels)

Greenhouse gas emissions from international air and sea transport are amongst the fastest growing component of global emissions, but are currently not included in individual country targets under the Kyoto Protocol. This means that there are no targets for reducing emissions from air travel. Emissions from air travel are especially potent, with one trip in a long haul flight emitting more greenhouse gas than a single car does over the course of one year.

Currently aviation makes up approximately 3.5 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. This could rise to 15 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 unless emissions reduction targets are established for international travel.

For information on the European Union’s response to international air travel visit here.

For information on people’s attitudes to addressing the issue of greenhouse gas and air travel see “Air Travel And Climate Change” here.