The gathering in The Hague, officially entitled the 6 th Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP6 for short, had as its objective the reaching of an agreement on the rules for implementing the Kyoto Protocol which was adopted at COP3 in Kyoto Japan in 1997. In the Kyoto Protocol, industrialised nations agreed to reduce their emissions from 1990 levels by the period 2010-2012. The reduction target varies slightly for different countries. Though many countries have signed the Kyoto Protocol, they have not yet ratified it.
Ratification requires passing appropriate legislation in a country s parliament.
Most industrialised nations have been waiting until they see what the implementation rules will be before proceeding to ratification. Hence, the importance of the COP6 agenda. Industrialised countries have the moral responsibility to meet their reduction targets primarily by actions to reduce emissions within their own countries which are the source of the problem. Under the Kyoto Protocol, however, there are flexibility mechanisms by which countries can attempt to meet part of their reduction targets through purchasing credits from other countries. To the concern of the churches, as well as many developing nations and environmental groups, the majority of attention leading up to and at COP6 was not focused on strategies for reducing emissions within industrialised countries but on negotiating these flexibility mechanisms for gaining credits from elsewhere.