The Kyoto Protocol

Signed in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, the Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty committing state parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in response to a growing scientific consensus of human-caused global warming. It extended the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Based on the understanding that more highly developed nations bear a greater responsibility for global emissions, the Protocol places a heavier burden on those nations to reduce their emissions, under the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities." The Protocol entered into force on February 16, 2005. Its first commitment period began in 2008 and ended in 2012.

The Paris Agreement

Reached in December 2015 in Paris, France, the Paris Agreement is a landmark international agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to combat climate change and to accelerate and intensify the actions and investments needed to lower future greenhouse gas emissions. The agreement sets the goal...