Article to The Kyoto Protocol

The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) sets binding obligations on industrialized countries to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The UNFCCC is an international environmental treaty with the goal of achieving the "stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic(влияние человека) interference(вмешательство) with the climate system."

The Protocol was adopted on 11 December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, and entered into force on 16 February 2005. As of September 2011, 191 states have signed and ratified the protocol. The United States signed but did not ratify the Protocol and Canada withdrew from it in 2011.Other United Nations member states which did not ratify the protocol are Afghanistan, Andorra and South Sudan.

Under the Protocol, 37 industrialized countries and the then European Community commit themselves to limit or reduce their emissions of four greenhouse gases (GHG) (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous(азотистый) oxide, sulphur(сера) hexafluoride) and two groups of gases (hydrofluorocarbons(фтороуглерод) and perfluorocarbons(фторированный углеводород). All member countries give general commitments.