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• Kyoto protocol
  Kyoto protocol

  noun

  an amendment to the United Nations international treaty on global warming in which participating nations commit to reducing their emissions of carbon dioxide, negotiated in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997
• Kyoto Protocol
  Kyoto Protocol

  An agreement on global warming reached by the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997. The major industrial nations pledged to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases between 2008 and 2012. (See greenhouse effect.) Although the American delegation signed the protocol, the United States Senate has refused to ratify the treaty, mainly because it believes that the targeted reductions are so steep that they will produce a severe economic slump.

Kyoto protocol

British  

noun

1. an amendment to the United Nations international treaty on global warming in which participating nations commit to reducing their emissions of carbon dioxide, negotiated in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997

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Kyoto Protocol Cultural  

1. An agreement on global warming reached by the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997. The major industrial nations pledged to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases between 2008 and 2012. (See greenhouse effect.) Although the American delegation signed the protocol, the United States Senate has refused to ratify the treaty, mainly because it believes that the targeted reductions are so steep that they will produce a severe economic slump.

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Attacking the U.S. position as selfish, European governments have been extremely critical of the U.S. refusal to ratify the protocol.

Example Sentences

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Kyoto protocol Kyoto Protocol

Many African countries argued for a legally binding global agreement to tackle droughts - something like the Kyoto protocol launched in 1997 to cut down carbon emissions, sources told the BBC.

From BBC ● May 23, 2022

Two countries that were especially important in terms of their potential impact that did not ratify the Kyoto protocol were the United States and China.

From Textbooks ● Sep. 6, 2018

Meanwhile, the Conference of Parties had formulated a market-based approach to climate change as the basis for the Kyoto protocol to the UNFCCC.

From The Guardian ● Jun. 5, 2017

The Kyoto protocol, signed in 1997, imposed on all the industrialized countries that signed it an obligation to cut carbon dioxide emissions by at least 5 percent in the period 2008-2012 versus 1990.

From Reuters ● Nov. 12, 2015

It has long bewailed the asymmetry between rich and poor that is written into the Kyoto protocol.

From Economist ● Dec. 15, 2011

In a 1997 speech in China, he spoke out against the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement to set global emission-reduction targets that the U.S. eventually rejected.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 10, 2026

When the playwrights Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson were looking for ideas for a new production, they stumbled upon a radio show about the negotiations that led to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.

From New York Times ● Jun. 18, 2024

In the late 1990s she led the first U.N. climate conferences and the Kyoto Protocol.

From Scientific American ● Oct. 25, 2023

He was one of six signatories to a letter condemning the Kyoto Protocol, which committed countries to reduce carbon emissions.

From BBC ● Apr. 3, 2023

“The flexibility that defines the Kyoto Protocol was very much designed in the USA,” he said.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 4, 2022