The Kyoto Protocol | McClatchy Washington Bureau

What does the Kyoto Protocol do?

It commits the industrialized countries who've ratified it to reduce their emissions of six gases implicated in global warming by an average of at least 5 percent. That would take them back to 1990 levels. These goals are to be achieved by 2008-2012.

Signators have some flexibility in how they attain these emissions reductions. Developing countries don't have to cut back. Neither does the United States, which has not ratified the treaty.

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(c) 2005, Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

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