While national governments have a legitimate monopoly on the use of force on a given territory (Weber, 1976), in the international political system of sovereign states, there is no « world government » to establish and strengthen cooperation between governments (Waltz, 1979). Nevertheless, after several years of intergovernmental negotiations, cooperation in the fight against climate change has been achieved, mainly because Governments created the Kyoto mechanisms under the Protocol that would reduce their pollution abatement costs (e.B. Bohm, 1999; Oberthur and Ott, 1999). Although the position of the EU and developing countries was, at least initially, marked by market scepticism and moral resistance to environmental trade, they accepted the Kyoto mechanisms because they were a precondition for several other countries, such as the United States, to accept an emissions reduction target (e.B Ringius, 1999). A few years after this compromise, the European Commission openly acknowledged that the Kyoto Protocol had placed emissions trading on the EU`s political agenda (COM, 2000a: 7). Several historical developments, including internal pressures and external « shocks » (as we will explain later in this book), eventually prompted the EU to adopt its own emissions trading scheme to start in 2005. The Kyoto Protocol stipulated that developed countries must reduce their greenhouse gas emissions at a time when the threat of global warming was increasing rapidly. The Protocol was linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It was adopted on 11 December 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, and became international law on 16 February 2005. In 2016, when the Paris Climate Agreement came into force, the United States was one of the main drivers of the agreement, and President Obama hailed it as « a tribute to American leadership. » As a presidential candidate at the time, Donald Trump criticized the deal as a bad deal for the American people and promised to withdraw the United States in the event of an election. Since the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, climate change has become a priority for the European Union.

The key role attributed to climate issues has triggered a long process characterized by a first phase, mainly devoted to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through appropriate mitigation strategies; a second phase to offset the impacts of climate-related events through adaptation strategies; and a third phase, still ongoing, dedicated to more effective integration between mitigation and adaptation strategies. This chapter examines how climate change has been addressed in Europe so far, identifies the phases, turning points and reasons that led to the transition from one phase to another, and highlights the potential of existing policies and the obstacles to their implementation. It is a fact that the success of climate strategies depends largely on cooperation between different actors, from the local to the global scale. Therefore, despite its strong commitment to climate change, Europe finds itself in a deadlock between local and global decisions that inevitably affect the results of the proposed strategies. It is unlikely that a significant reduction in carbon emissions can be achieved as early as 2010 by implementing new energy-efficient technologies such as fuel cell vehicles. Probably the most cost-effective way to reduce carbon emissions is a large-scale conversion of nuclear power generation, perhaps to levels above 50%, carried out a few years ago in France, Japan and other developed countries. Nature conservation, food security and poverty reduction are among the objectives of the UNFCCC. The convention states that a stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations must be achieved. » in sufficient time to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, to ensure that food production is not threatened and to enable sustainable economic development. The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement that aims to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and the presence of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere. The fundamental principle of the Kyoto Protocol was that industrialized countries should reduce the amount of their CO2 emissions. Recognizing that developed countries are primarily responsible for current greenhouse gas emissions, which are due to more than 150 years of uninterrupted industrial activity, the Protocol has placed a heavier burden on them. 37 industrialised countries and the EU were asked to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, while developing countries were asked to comply voluntarily; more than 100 developing countries, including China and India, have been exempted from the treaty.

While the first scientific hypothesis of an increased greenhouse effect by human activities was formulated as early as the end of the 19th century, climate change was not placed on the international political agenda until the end of the 20th century (e.B. Bolin, 1993; Jäger and O`Riordan, 1996). Alarmed by the evidence of global warming that scientists have presented since the 1960s, governments called for further research in the early 1980s, which eventually led to the creation of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) within the framework of the United Nations (UN) in 1988. Following the end of the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol in December 2012, The Parties to the Protocol met in Doha, Qatar, to discuss an amendment to the original Kyoto Agreement. The Doha Amendment added new targets for the second commitment period (2012-2020) for participating countries, where the Parties committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 18% compared to 1990 levels In December 2020, the EU presented its updated and improved target to reduce emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. and information to facilitate the clarity, transparency and understanding (ICTU) of the NDC. The EU and its Member States have jointly committed to achieving the binding target of reducing national greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. An Adaptation Fund has been established to finance adaptation projects and programmes in developing countries that are Parties to the Protocol.

During the first commitment period, the fund was mainly financed by a share of the proceeds of the CDM project activities. For the second commitment period, the Fund would also receive a 2% share of revenue through international emissions trading and joint implementation. The Kyoto Protocol recognized that developed countries are primarily responsible for the current high emissions of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which can be attributed to more than 150 years of industrial activity. As a result, the protocol imposes a heavier burden on developed countries than on less developed countries. SO2 controls: Choosing the right flue gas desulphurization (FGD) is likely to have an impact on overall greenhouse gas emissions. The Paris Agreement establishes a global framework to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2°C and striving to limit it to 1.5°C. It also aims to strengthen the capacity of countries to cope with the effects of climate change and to support them in their efforts. The answer depends on who you ask and how you measure emissions. Since the first climate negotiations in the 1990s, officials have debated which countries – developed or developing countries – are most to blame for climate change and should therefore reduce their emissions. « The Paris Agreement is not enough. Even at the time of the negotiations, it was recognized that this was not enough, » says CFR`s Hill. « This was only a first step, and it was expected that over time, countries would return with a greater ambition to reduce their emissions.

Countries that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol have received maximum levels of carbon emissions during certain periods and have participated in emissions trading. If a country issues more than the limit assigned to it, it is penalized by receiving a lower emission limit value in the following period. Since the introduction of the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change (1997) and the third meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP3) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), some countries have agreed to limit their greenhouse gas emissions. Coal is used in important industries such as power generation, steel production and cement production, as well as in locomotives, furnaces and kilns. The world is now concerned about greenhouse gas emissions, with CO2 being the main element that can contribute to global warming and climate change. .