Parties to UN climate change treaty adopt agreement on Kyoto Protocol

Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change have formally adopted an operational rulebook for the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which sets legally binding targets for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

The Buenos Aires Plan of Action, as the rulebook is known, was formally adopted late Wednesday evening. The President of the Conference, Jan Pronk, said negotiations would now go forward on the basis of the political integrity of the text.

Among other measures, the agreement calls for the establishment of a special climate change fund, and a fund for least developed countries, to help developing States adapt to climate change impacts, obtain clean technologies, and limit the growth in their emissions. In addition, a Kyoto Protocol Adaptation Fund will be established to finance concrete adaptation projects and programmes.

The current meeting of the Conference of the Parties is scheduled to wrap up on Friday, with the next session taking place from 29 October to 9 November in Marrakech, Morocco.