February 11, 2006

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Home > Kyoto Protocol

About the Kyoto Protocol

The Kyoto Protocol

In December, 1997, Canada and 160 other members of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) met in Kyoto Japan to develop an international accord that would help mitigate the effects of climate change through the reduction of GHG emissions.

The resulting agreement called the Kyoto Protocol was signed by Canada on April 29, 1998 and ratified it in 2004. It became legally binding on February 16, 2005. Under the terms of the Protocol, Canada is required to reduce emissions to a level of 6% below 1990 levels in the period 2008-2012.

Since signing the Protocol in 1998, Canada has invested more than $3 billion in climate change action programs and initiatives to help reduce GHG emissions across all sectors of the economy. On April 13, 2005 the Government of Canada announced the climate change plan: Moving Forward on Climate Change: A Plan for Honoring our Kyoto Commitment.

As an interim step towards reporting under the Kyoto Protocol, Canada is currently required to submit annually a National Inventory Report (NIR) and a set of tables in a common reporting format for 1990 and all subsequent years to the UNFCCC Secretariat on April 15th each year. These submissions follow a set of internationally agreed to guidelines developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for the preparation of national greenhouse gas inventories.

Additional Information

Additional information on the Kyoto Protocol including the full text and a list of signatory countries can be found at the UNFCCC Convention and Kyoto Protocol web site. Specific information relating to Kyoto Implementation is available on the same site.

For more information on Canada and the Kyoto Protocol, please visit the Government of Canada's climate change web site.