The Kyoto Protocol was agreed at a 1997 United Nations conference in Kyoto, Japan, to cut the amount of greenhouse gases emitted by developed countries by 5.2 per cent of 1990 levels by 2008 to 2012.

Eighty-four countries have signed the pact, and 81 have introduced laws confirming its rules. More than 100 countries agreed to tackle climate change at the original Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, when leaders created the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change which set a non-binding goal of stabilising emissions at 1990 levels by 2000.

The Kyoto Protocol is the follow-up to this and will be the first legally binding global agreement to cut greenhouse gases. But the protocol will only become binding after it is ratified by signatories which represent no less than 55 per cent of developed countries' carbon dioxide emissions - a level yet to be attained.The protocol provides for a flexible mechanisms for countries to reach their targets, including emissions trading.