Kyoto Targets

The international effort to curb global warming began in 1992, at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, where the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change was signed. That Convention set out guidelines for keeping greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would keep human-generated greenhouse gases from interfering with the normal functioning of climate systems. It also set a voluntary goal of reducing emissions from developed counties to 1990 levels by 2000 - a goal that was largely unmet.

In 1997, recognizing that stronger action was needed, countries negotiated the Kyoto Protocol, creating binding targets to reduce emissions 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

On February 16, 2005, Kyoto's emission targets became binding legal commitments for those industrialized countries that ratified the treaty (141 - basically, the major industrialized nations except the U.S. and Australia). Also, the market-based strategies and measures to reduce greenhouse gases under Kyoto, including international emissions trading and the Clean Development Mechanism, became fully operational.

The next step is to broaden the agreement to include all of the major emitting countries and lay down a plan for significant, long-term reductions in greenhouse gases beyond Kyoto's initial commitment period (2008-2012).

Adopting a " Kyoto target" allows a campus to be in step with the baseline emissions reductions goals accepted by the rest of the industrialized world - and the emerging international carbon market.