Entry Into Force of Kyoto Protocol

A Promising Development for Poor Countries

Opportunities to reduce the presence in the atmosphere of gases that cause climate change have increased with the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol on February 16, 2005.

The Protocol is an international agreement, negotiated in Kyoto, Japan in 1997, that sets deadlines for developed countries to achieve measurable reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, with penalties for those that fail to comply.

It also establishes a system of credits whereby any developed country that achieves emissions reductions beyond its agreed target will have surplus credits that it can sell to another country that is falling short of its target.

Currently, the vast majority of the greenhouse gases that cause climate change originate in the wealthier, developed countries, including Canada. But when sea levels rise, extreme weather strikes and drought parches the landscape, it is generally the poorer, developing countries that are the hardest hit and least able to cope. Risks to the health of people in developing countries, and to the environment from which they derive sustenance, only increases their vulnerability and decreases their prospects of escaping poverty.

To help developing countries adapt to the consequences of climate change, and reduce their own greenhouse gas emissions, the Government of Canada established the Canada Climate Change Development Fund (CCCDF) in 2000. One of the ways in which the Fund has helped is in building capacity in developing countries to participate in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).

For more information on Canada's effort to combat climate change, please consult Environment Canada's page on climate change.

For information on the Kyoto Protocol and other efforts at the global level, please see the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.