international conference on environment and development was the 'Rio Earth Summit' in 1992, where the United Nations Framework Convention on climate Change (UNFCCC) was created. Today, 181 governments and the European Union (EU) are parties to the Convention. They meet regularly at the annual Conference of the Parties (COP), where they review the implementation of the Convention and continue talks on the way to tackle Climate Change. The Convention divides countries into 2 groups: the industrialised countries who have contributed the most to climate change, and developing countries. The result of the Rio Summit was a recommendation, a non-legally binding aim. The aim was for industrialised countries to return their GHGs emissions to 1990 levels by 2000. But at COP1 in 1995, the Parties decided that the commitments were not adequate. After 2 years and a half of intense negotiations, the Kyoto protocol was adopted at COP3 in December 1997.The Kyoto protocol set ambitious goals, legally binding targets. The objective is an average of 5.2% reduction of carbon dioxide emissions to below 1990 levels by 2012. For instances, the US committed itself to a reduction of 7%, the EU 8% and Japan 6%. The treaty is planned to be ratified by 2002 and will enter into force after 55 countries have ratified it. These countries must represent at least 55% of the emissions of industrialised countries. But questions remained unanswered about what mechanisms had to be implemented to reach the Kyoto target. Thus, the Parties committed themselves to find an agreement on this issue at COP6 in November 2000.COP6 took place in The Hague, The Netherlands. This summit was very important as, for most parties, the decision to ratify the Kyoto Protocol was greatly dependent on its output. Three main issues had to be addressed. The first one was whether or not countries could take into account 'carbon sinks'. Basically, some countries want to be allowed to reduce their ...
