The resulting Kyoto Protocol commits the industrialised nations to reduce their collective emissions of six greenhouse gases by 5.2 per cent, averaged over the period 2008-2012. Carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide reductions are to be from 1990 levels, the existing baseline. As the negotiations worked through the night, flexibility proved one way to resolve disagreement. Some parties, such as the European Union, took on cuts of 8 per cent. The United States reluctantly accepted a reduction target of 7 per cent.
Flexibility also extends to the manner in which commitments can be met.
Through joint implementation, parties can finance emissions reductions in other industrialised nations and take credit for the outcome. An emissions trading mechanism will permit industrialised nations to buy and sell 'excess' emissions credits. Details of these schemes could not be resolved and negotiations will continue over the next year. Developing nations are not covered by formal emission controls at this stage of treaty implementation. Third World delegates did, however, play a major part in Kyoto, holding the industrialised nations to their obligation to take the first step in curbing emissions, as explicitly stated in the treaty.