Copenhagen Conference(International Level)

In 2009, Copenhagen hosted a United Nations Climate Change Conference. The conference is hosted to improve on the measures developed by the Kyoto Protocol to deal with the issue of climate change. 

Success of Copenhagen Conference

The Copenhagen Conference successfully brought together a group of important political figures to discuss the measures that will address the issue of climate change effectively. During the conference, the Copenhagen Accord was drawn up. It is an international agreement with the long-term goal of keeping any increases in global temperature to within 2°C compared to the global temperature in 1850. 

In the conference, targets for reducing the greenhouse gas emission were successfully set up. Developed countries committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by various amounts by 2020. Developed countries also promised to give a total of US$30 billion to less developed countries from 2010 to 2012 and provide long-term financial aid of US$100 billion annually by 2020. The money given will help the less developed countries reduce their greenhouse gas emission.

Limitations of Copenhagen Conference

Some countries are unable to reduce emission to within 2°C of the temperature before 1850. There was also no agreement on how to reduce the greenhouse gas emission which makes the countries difficult to reduce greenhouse gas. In fact, the target the countries set were insufficient to reduce emission to within 2°C of the temperatures before 1850.

Many developed countries did not sign the Copenhagen Accord so the accord is not legally binding. The targets set were somehow a guideline and not a condition which make many countries not keep to their targets.

Kyoto Protocol(International Level)

The Kyoto Protocol is an agreement related to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which is an international convention set up with the aim of cutting down on the levels of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. Many countries came together to sign the Kyoto Protocol and came up with ways to address climate change and start practicing the ways.  The Kyoto Protocol was first commenced in Kyoto, Japan on 11 December 1997 and action was taken on 16 February 2005.
Under the Protocol, various countries were given certain targets to reduce greenhouse gas emission. 37 developed countries and European countries were given greater responsibility to reduce greenhouse gases because these countries had been responsible for the high level of greenhouse emission for a long time since it had more than 150 years of industrial activities. Those developed countries were required to reduce their greenhouse gas emission by at least 5% compared to the greenhouse emission in 1990 from 2008 to 2012. The developed countries were given extra responsibility such as to aid less developed countries reduce their greenhouse gas emission, depending on their ability

Success of the Kyoto Protocol

Many countries like Finland, Greece and Ireland, managed to met or even exceed the targets set by the Kyoto Protocol.
Countries needed to monitor and report their greenhouse gas emission to ensure that they were progressing towards their emission targets.
The Kyoto Protocol was also successful in encouraging sustainable development. The Clean Development Mechanism and Certified Emission Reduction praise countries that carried out emission reduction projects like installing energy efficient infrastructure in less developed countries. Clean Development Mechanism not only encourage sustainable development, but also helped developed countries reduce their greenhouse emissions when they carry out emission reduction projects in less developed countries

Limitation of the Kyoto Protocol

There are still some countries like Denmark, Austria and Spain that did not achieve their greenhouse emission targets. 

The Kyoto Protocol did not make countries with low greenhouse gas emission compulsory to help other countries. Example, it is not compulsory for countries with low greenhouse gas emission to give energy-efficient technology to countries with high greenhouse gas emission. Therefore, countries with high greenhouse gas emission may not be able to achieve their emission targets easily. 

Countries that did not sign the Kyoto Protocol continued to emit large amount of greenhouse gas. This make the Kyoto Protocol have limited impacts on global greenhouse gas emissions.