Annex I CEE Countries

Article 3 of the Kyoto Protocol establishes the key responsibility of Annex I Parties, including the 12 Economies in Transition: to keep their actual GHG emissions at specific levels during the 2008-2012 period.

To help achieve these target emission levels and promote sustainable development, the Kyoto Protocol gives Parties the flexibility to implement a set of policies and measures according to their national circumstances. In Kyoto Protocol parlance, country targets are expressed as an "assigned amount," which represents the total amount of GHG emissions that an Annex I country is allowed to emit. The assigned amount is lower than CEE Annex I country emissions in 1990 (with four exceptions) and, if the protocol is ratified by the Parties, they will have to meet their targets by 2012.

Kyoto Protocol Emissions Targets

The Protocol's purpose is to further the Climate Convention's fundamental objective: "[To stabilize] greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system." The way to reduce atmospheric concentrations of GHGs is to reduce net emissions, and country targets do precisely this.

The assigned amounts of the Kyoto Protocol are the first legal obligations in which countries have collectively agreed to restrict GHG emissions to forestall global climate change. The protocol implements these principles by allowing countries to adjust their assigned amounts.

How does this adjustment work and will it not compromise the integrity of the treaty? While the assigned amounts remain fixed for all Annex I countries together, each country may adjust its assigned amount, and thereby change its legal emissions limit. Country targets are adjusted by participating in the flexibility mechanisms. For example, emissions trading allows a country to lower its assigned amount by selling a "part of an assigned amount" (PAA). The point of the international mechanisms is that the buyer can emit more-- whereas the seller can emit less-- but the quantity of emission rights that the buyer purchases is exactly offset by those the seller transfers. For the purpose of accounting assigned amounts, it is a zero-sum game. At the end of the compliance period (after 2012), the total assigned amount of a country-- taking into account adjustments made from emissions trading and joint implementation-- must be greater than or equal to actual GHG emission levels.