Los mecanismos de Kyoto

En virtud del tratado los pases tienen que alcanzar sus metas principalmente a
travs de medidas nacionales. No obstante, el Protocolo de Kyoto les ofrece medios
adicionales de alcanzar sus metas a travs de mecanismos basados en el mercado.
Estos mecanismos son:

Comercio de los derechos de emisin: lo que se conoce como el mercado

del carbono

Las Partes que han asumido compromisos en virtud del Protocolo de Kyoto (las
Partes del anexo B) han aceptado metas para limitar o reducir las emisiones. Estas
metas estn expresadas como niveles de emisiones permitidos o cantidades
atribuidas durante el perodo de compromiso 2008-12. Las emisiones permitidas
son divididas en unidades de la cantidad atribuida (UCA).

El comercio de los derechos de emisin, tal y como se dispone en el artculo 17 del

Protocolo de Kyoto, permite que los pases que tengan unidades de emisin de
sobra (emisiones que tienen permitidas pero a las que no llegan) vendan ese
exceso de capacidad a pases que sobrepasan sus metas. De esta manera se cre
un nuevo producto bsico en forma de reducciones o eliminaciones de las
emisiones. Puesto que el dixido de carbono es el principal gas de efecto
invernadero, se habla simplemente del comercio de carbono. Este gas est
sometido a los mismos seguimientos y transacciones comerciales que
cualquier otro producto bsico, lo que se conoce como mercado del
carbono.

Mecanismo para un Desarrollo Limpio

El Mecanismo para un Desarrollo Limpio (MDL), definido en el artculo 12 del

Protocolo, permite que un pas que en virtud del Protocolo de Kyoto haya asumido
el compromiso de reducir o limitar las emisiones (Parte del anexo B) ponga en
prctica proyectos de reduccin de las emisiones en pases en desarrollo. A travs
de tales proyectos se pueden conseguir crditos por reducciones certificadas de las
emisiones (RCE), cada uno de los cuales equivale a una tonelada de CO2, que
cuenta para el cumplimiento de las metas.

Muchos consideran que el mecanismo es pionero. Es el primer plan mundial de

inversin y crdito ambiental de su clase, y sirve de instrumento para compensar
las emisiones normalizadas (las RCE). Una actividad de un proyecto del MDL puede
consistir, por ejemplo, en un proyecto de electrificacin en el que se usen paneles
solares, o la instalacin de calderas de menos consumo. El mecanismo fomenta el
desarrollo sostenible y la reduccin de las emisiones al mismo tiempo que da cierta
flexibilidad a los pases industrializados a la hora de elegir la forma en que quieren
alcanzar sus metas de reduccin o limitacin de las emisiones.
Aplicacin Conjunta

El mecanismo conocido como aplicacin conjunta, definido en el artculo 6 del

Protocolo de Kyoto, permite que un pas que en virtud del Protocolo de Kyoto se
haya comprometido a reducir o limitar sus emisiones (Parte del anexo B) gane
unidades de reduccin de las emisiones generadas en un proyecto de reduccin o
eliminacin de las emisiones de otra Parte del anexo B, cada una de ellas
equivalente a una tonelada de CO2, que cuenta para el logro de su meta de Kyoto.
La aplicacin conjunta ofrece a las Partes un medio flexible y rentable de cumplir
parte de sus compromisos de Kyoto, al mismo tiempo que la Parte donde se lleva a
cabo el proyecto se beneficia de la inversin extranjera y la transferencia de
tecnologa. Estos mecanismos contribuyen a fomentar la inversin verde y ayudan a
las Partes a lograr sus metas de emisiones de una manera rentable.

Fondo de adaptacin

El Protocolo de Kyoto, al igual que la Convencin, fue diseado para ayudar a los
pases a adaptarse a los efectos adversos del cambio climtico. Facilita la creacin y
despliegue de tcnicas que pueden ayudar a aumentar la capacidad de
recuperacin despus de los impactos del cambio climtico. Para financiar
proyectos y programas concretos de adaptacin en pases en desarrollo que son
Partes en el Protocolo de Kyoto se estableci un fondo de adaptacin. Dicho fondo
se financiar con una parte de los ingresos resultantes de actividades de proyectos
del Mecanismo para un Desarrollo Limpio (MDL) y tambin de otra procedencia.
International Emissions Trading

Greenhouse gas emissions a new commodity

Parties with commitments under the Kyoto Protocol (Annex B Parties) have
accepted targets for limiting or reducing emissions. These targets are expressed as
levels of allowed emissions, or assigned amounts, over the 2008-2012
commitment period. The allowed emissions are divided into assigned amount
units (AAUs).

Emissions trading, as set out in Article 17 of the Kyoto Protocol, allows countries
that have emission units to spare - emissions permitted them but not "used" - to
sell this excess capacity to countries that are over their targets.

Thus, a new commodity was created in the form of emission reductions or

removals. Since carbon dioxide is the principal greenhouse gas, people speak
simply of trading in carbon. Carbon is now tracked and traded like any other
commodity. This is known as the "carbon market."

Other trading units in the carbon market

More than actual emissions units can be traded and sold under the Kyoto Protocols
emissions trading scheme.

The other units which may be transferred under the scheme, each equal to one
tonne of CO2, may be in the form of:

1. A removal unit (RMU) on the basis of land use, land-use change and forestry
(LULUCF) activities such as reforestation
2. An emission reduction unit (ERU) generated by a joint implementation project
3. A certified emission reduction (CER) generated from a clean development
mechanism project activity
4. Transfers and acquisitions of these units are tracked and recorded through
the registry systems under the Kyoto Protocol.
5. An international transaction log ensures secure transfer of emission reduction
units between countries.

The commitment period reserve

In order to address the concern that Parties could "oversell" units, and
subsequently be unable to meet their own emissions targets, each Party is required
to maintain a reserve of ERUs, CERs, AAUs and/or RMUs in its national registry.
This reserve, known as the "commitment period reserve", should not drop below 90
per cent of the Party's assigned amount or 100 per cent of five times its most
recently reviewed inventory, whichever is lowest
Relationship to domestic and regional emissions trading schemes

Emissions trading schemes may be established as climate policy instruments at the

national level and the regional level. Under such schemes, governments set
emissions obligations to be reached by the participating entities.

The European Union emissions trading scheme is the largest in operation.

The EU emissions trading system (EU ETS) is a cornerstone of the

European Union's policy to combat climate change and its key tool for
reducing industrial greenhouse gas emissions cost-effectively.

The first - and still by far the biggest - international system for trading greenhouse
gas emission allowances, the EU ETS covers more than 11,000 power stations and
industrial plants in 31 countries, as well as airlines.

A 'cap and trade' system

The EU ETS works on the 'cap and trade' principle. A 'cap', or limit, is set on the
total amount of certain greenhouse gases that can be emitted by the factories,
power plants and other installations in the system. The cap is reduced over time so
that total emissions fall.

In 2020, emissions from sectors covered by the EU ETS will be 21% lower than in
2005. By 2030, the Commission proposes, they would be 43% lower.

Within the cap, companies receive or buy emission allowances which they can trade
with one another as needed. They can also buy limited amounts of international
credits from emission-saving projects around the world. The limit on the total
number of allowances available ensures that they have a value.

After each year a company must surrender enough allowances to cover all its
emissions, otherwise heavy fines are imposed. If a company reduces its emissions,
it can keep the spare allowances to cover its future needs or else sell them to
another company that is short of allowances. The flexibility that trading brings
ensures that emissions are cut where it costs least to do so.

Heavy industry site

By putting a price on carbon and thereby giving a financial value to each tonne of
emissions saved, the EU ETS has placed climate change on the agenda of company
boards and their financial departments across Europe. A sufficiently high carbon
price also promotes investment in clean, low-carbon technologies.
In allowing companies to buy international credits, the EU ETS also acts as a major
driver of investment in clean technologies and low-carbon solutions, particularly in
developing countries.

EU ETS: Key facts

1. Operates in the 28 EU countries and the three EEA-EFTA states (Iceland,

Liechtenstein and Norway)
2. Covers around 45% of the EU's greenhouse gas emissions
3. Limits emissions from:
a. More than 11,000 heavy energy-using installations in power generation
and manufacturing industry
b. Aircraft operators performing aviation activities in the EU and EFTA
states.

Greenhouse gases and sectors covered

1. Carbon dioxide (CO2) from

- Power and heat generation
- Energy-intensive industry sectors including oil refineries, steel works
and production of iron, aluminium, metals, cement, lime, glass,
ceramics, pulp, paper, cardboard, acids and bulk organic chemicals
- Civil aviation
2. Nitrous oxide (N2O) from production of nitric, adipic, glyoxal and glyoxlic
acids
3. Perfluorocarbons (PFCs) from aluminium production

Making a difference

The EU ETS has put a price on carbon and shown that it is possible to trade in
greenhouse gas emissions. Emissions from installations in the scheme are falling as
intended.

Emissions of greenhouse gases from installations participating in the EU ETS are

estimated to have decreased by at least 3% in 2013.

The success of the EU ETS has inspired other countries and regions to
launch cap and trade schemes of their own.

The EU aims to link up the ETS with compatible systems around the world to form
the backbone of an expanded international carbon market.
International carbon market

The international carbon market can play a key role in reducing global greenhouse
gas emissions cost-effectively. It is likely to develop through "bottom-up" linking of
emission trading systems.

The number of emissions trading systems around the world is increasing. Besides
the EU ETS, national or sub-national systems are already operating or under
development in Canada, China, Japan, Kazakhstan, New Zealand, South Korea,
Switzerland and the United States.

Linking the EU ETS with other cap-and-trade systems

Linking compatible emissions trading systems with each other enables participants
in one system to use units from another system for compliance purposes.

Linking offers several potential benefits, including:

1. reducing the cost of cutting emissions
2. increasing market liquidity
3. making the carbon price more stable
4. levelling the international playing field by harmonising carbon prices across
jurisdictions, and
5. supporting global cooperation on climate change.

The EU ETS legislation provides for the possibility to link the EU ETS with other
compatible emissions trading systems in the world at national or regional level.

Conditions for linking include:

1. system compatibility (the systems have the same basic environmental
integrity, and a tonne of CO2 in one system is a tonne in the other system)
2. the mandatory nature of the system, and
3. the existence of an absolute cap on emissions.

The EU and Switzerland are currently negotiating the possibility of linking their
systems, which would result in the mutual recognition of emission allowances.
Switzerland would keep a separate system from the EU ETS. The final conclusion of
the negotiations is dependent on the other components of the package under
negotiation.

The EU and Australia also considered the possibility to link their systems. However,
due to the repeal of the Australian system in 2014, the linking negotiations have
not been pursued.
MARKET STABILITY RESERVE (MSR)

On 22 January 2014, the European Commission tabled a discussion paper on a

mechanism called the Market Stability Reserve. The MSR is type of carbon bank
that acts to withhold and return supply to the market based on the number of
allowances in circulation.

If the surplus is too big, supply is withheld. If it sinks too low, supply is returned. In
this way, the MSR pushes the market towards moderate scarcity and a carbon price
sufficient to drive abatement.

Unlike a central bank, the MSR would operate entirely according to pre-defined
rules, leaving no discretion to the Commission or member states in its
implementation.

The Commissions original plan was for the MSR to begin in 2021, but a counter
proposal supported by the EU Parliaments Environment Committee would see it
start in 2018, immediately loaded with the 900 Mt backloaded and unallocated
allowances from the 2013-20 phase three trading period. Negotiations are ongoing.

The best thing about the MSR is that it should actually work.

Feeding a range of extreme scenarios into our model, we conclude that the MSR will
almost certainly result in carbon prices sufficiently high to achieve the policy goal
for which they were designed, namely shifting Europe off its high-carbon diet.

How high would carbon prices go? The answer to that depends to a large extent on
the spread between European coal and gas prices but very likely over EUR 30 per
tonne.

The World Bank has suggested that a robust global solution is required to revive
private sector confidence to invest in carbon markets. In our view, that is to
perpetuate the myth that a single global carbon price is necessary and sufficient to
get the world onto a two-degree trajectory.

The truth is that confidence in carbon markets will be achieved not by signing
another generic agreement in Paris and waiting until 2020 to see the details, but by
fixing the EU ETS as soon as possible. And though it has been a long time coming,
a fix now looks within arms reach.

Then carbon markets might be seen as an idea whose time has come.
Again.
What is the clean development mechanism?

The CDM allows emission-reduction projects in developing countries to earn

certified emission reduction (CER) credits, each equivalent to one tonne of CO2.
These CERs can be traded and sold, and used by industrialized countries to a meet
a part of their emission reduction targets under the Kyoto Protocol.

The mechanism stimulates sustainable development and emission reductions, while

giving industrialized countries some flexibility in how they meet their emission
reduction limitation targets.

The CDM is the main source of income for the UNFCCC Adaptation Fund, which was
established to finance adaptation projects and programmes in developing country
Parties to the Kyoto Protocol that are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects
of climate change. The Adaptation Fund is financed by a 2% levy on CERs issued by
the CDM.

Binding targets

The central feature of the PDF Document Kyoto Protocol is its requirement that
countries limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. By setting such targets,
emission reductions took on economic value. To help countries meet their emission
targets, and to encourage the private sector and developing countries to contribute
to emission reduction efforts, negotiators of the Protocol included three market-
based mechanisms:
1. emissions trading
2. clean development mechanism (CDM)
3. Joint Implementation (JI).

In accordance with the Standard for the application of the global warming
potentials to clean development mechanism project activities and programme of
activities for the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol and the
underlying CMP Decision, for all emission reductions achieved starting 1 January
2013, the following global warming potentials (expressed in tCO2e/t) should be
used:
1. Carbon dioxide (CO2): 1
2. Methane (CH4): 25
3. Nitrous oxide (N2O): 298
4. Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6): 22,800
5. HFC-23 (CHF3): 14,800
6. PFC-14: (CF4): 7,390
7. Other PFC and HFC gases: please refer to the table 2.14 of the errata to the
contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (available here). The values
found in the column "global warming potentials provided for given time
horizon" using the 100-year time horizon apply.
What is JI?
JI represents the project-based mechanism referred to in Article 6 of the Kyoto
Protocol. JI stimulates investment in emission reduction projects, while giving
industrialized countries, and economies in transition, some flexibility in how they
meet their emission reduction or limitation targets. The subsequent emission
reductions generated by the projects are called emission reduction units (ERUs).
These units are traded in the carbon markets and can be used by a country to
count toward its commitments under the Protocol.

EXAMPLES DOC
Adaptation Fund

Background

The Adaptation Fund (AF) was established in 2001 to finance concrete adaptation
projects and programmes in developing country Parties to the Kyoto Protocol that
are particularly vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.

The Adaptation Fund is financed with a share of proceeds from the clean
development mechanism (CDM) project activities and other sources of funding.
The share of proceeds amounts to 2 per cent of certified emission reductions
(CERs) issued for a CDM project activity.

The Adaptation Fund is supervised and managed by the Adaptation Fund Board
(AFB). The AFB is composed of 16 members and 16 alternates and meets at least
twice a year (Membership of the AFB).

In decision 1/CMP.8, the Parties decided that for the second commitment period,
the Adaptation Fund shall be further augmented through a 2 per cent share of the
proceeds levied on the first international transfers of AAUs and the issuance of
ERUs for Article 6 projects immediately upon the conversion to ERUs of AAUs or
RMUs previously held by Parties.

Resource mobilization

CMP 9 welcomed the financial contributions that have been made to the AF in 2013
by the Government of Sweden and the Brussels-Capital Region in Belgium, and the
pledges of contributions to the AF made by the Government of Austria, Belgium,
Finland, France, Germany, Norway and Switzerland, which enabled the AF to
achieve its goal of the USD 100 million fundraising by the end of 2013.
International climate negotiations

To encourage the development of the international carbon market, the EU would

like to see recognition of the role of international markets in the Paris Agreement.

This could be achieved through:

1. accounting rules enabling parties to take the international use of domestic
markets into account in fulfilling their emissions reduction commitments
(while ensuring that the integrity of commitments is not undermined by
double counting), and
2. a new market mechanism to facilitate participation in the international carbon
market on the basis of a defined contribution to mitigation.

These provisions should build on approaches adopted under the Kyoto Protocol,
such as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Joint Implementation (JI).

Moreover, the provisions should be adapted to the new context in which countries
will be making a variety of contributions and emissions reduction commitments.

Accordingly, both CDM and JI should be reformed in order to improve their

environmental integrity and efficiency, e.g. through an explicit recognition of the
need for a contribution to mitigation, more use of standardised approaches, and
alternative ways of assessing additionality.