Logo of Kyoto protocol

The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement on reducing Greenhouse gases emissions which were adopted on 11 December 1997 in the city of Kyoto, Japan. Global warming has been a matter of great concern for all the human beings because of the risk it poses to life on planet earth and especially to that of the human life. To cope with this problem, UNO ( United Nations Organization) forced special emphasis on Environment related research in the late 1980s and a special framework was adopted in 1992 in the Headquarters of United Nations which is called as UNFCCC.

 Kyoto Protocol was an extension of this UNFCCC (United Nations framework convention on climate change) which restricts annex 1 countries ( Developed and Industrialised countries) from producing Greenhouse gases emissions above a certain limit. There is also a second category of state parties called as Annex 2 countries ( Developing countries and economies in transition). These Greenhouse gases mainly consist of Carbon dioxide (CO2), Methane and 4 other gases.

The Kyoto Protocol was fully implemented on 16, 2005 with the ratification of Russia which resulted in the approval of countries having total emissions up to 60%. However, the United States of America which produces more than 25% of Worldwide Greenhouse Gases emissions didn’t ratify this protocol along with Australia which also opted-out.

Countries with Greenhouse gases emission targets can achieve their targets by reducing their own emissions and can go for two alternative strategies.

The two main alternative strategies.of Kyoto Protocol are as follows.

i) Joint implementation and ii) Clean Development Mechanism.

Now if we talk about Pakistan, it is basically a developing country with very low Greenhouse gases emissions ratio of 0.3% to 0.4% compared to other countries and hence there is no strict binding on Pakistan to reduce its Greenhouse gases emissions but still the government is pursuing an agenda to reduce emissions for the benefit of its own people. One important sector that should be emphasized is the alternative energy sector because of the ongoing energy crisis in the country.

However, the government is still facing problems in taking some concrete steps because of the following reasons.

i) Lack of Public awareness is one of the reasons that is hampering all the steps. The common man has no experience of using renewable energy causing hindrance in its use.

ii) Lack of investment is another reason which has proved fatal for all policies implemented for this purpose. The government doesn't have resources that can start alternative energy projects which tend to be relatively costly.

iii) Lack of institutional infrastructure is another highlighting point which hasn’t allowed proper implementation of this policy.

Apart from these, some other factors have also proved as drawbacks which include, no subsidy from the government, lack of incentives for investors, lack of skills on both the top and bottom layer and lack of proper rules to prove vital for investment in projects pertaining to reductions in emissions reductions.