Stockholm Conference to Kyoto Protocol – A Review of Climate Change Mitigation Initiatives

Year 2022, Volume: 4 Issue: 2, 338 - 350, 04.07.2022

Bishnu Pada Bose Moumita Dhar Diptasri Ghosh

Abstract

The journey from the Stockholm Conference to Kyoto Protocol has been long, whereby the moot point has been to raise awareness and implement policies that would improve the global environment by reducing greenhouse gasses (GHGs). Over the past few decades, apart from some irradiative forces owing to anthropogenic activities, climate change is a stark reality today, endangering the Earth's environment. The Stockholm conference was the first earth summit conceived by the United Nations at Stockholm way back in 1972; the focus was on the conservation and development of the human race and environment. Ever since, several summits on environmental protection have been held, focusing on raising awareness while implementing policies with well-defined objectives aiming to achieve feasible output in reducing the burning of fossil fuel and minimizing the output of GHGs through a mechanism called clean development mechanism (CDM). The concept of CDM came into vogue during the Kyoto Protocol, which was signed in December 1997, and was only effectuated in February 2005. The Kyoto protocol under UNFCCC is a well-defined policy and framework by which one could assess the actual implementation of GHG concentration reduction in the atmosphere. This paper presents the chronology of the progress and the latest status of an agenda and policy that was initiated during the Stockholm conference and was given a structure at the Kyoto protocol.

Keywords

Global environment, Fossil fuel, Greenhouse gasses, Anthropogenic activities, Kyoto Protocol, Clean development mechanism

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