Paris, 4 December 2015. The Kyoto Protocol is currently suffering from an 11 gigatonne hot air loopholes that undermines its environmental effectiveness. In this context, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom today announced that they will cancel part of their pre-2020 surplus units (AAUs) under the Kyoto Protocol.
The five countries have announced to cancel 634.9 million surplus units from the Kyoto Protocol’s first commitment period with the goal to send a positive signal of support for an ambitious Paris climate agreement.
“The cancellation initiative is a welcome step to put the spotlights on the dangers of hot air. We hope to see this initiative extended to all surplus units that could potentially harm climate commitments post-2020” commented Femke de Jong, Carbon Market Watch’s EU climate policy advisor.
Under the current rules, the surplus AAUs under the Kyoto Protocol cannot be used after 2020. However, other Kyoto Protocol units, such as pre-2020 carbon offsets, could still severely undermine the environmental integrity of the Paris climate treaty if Parties would allow them to be carried-over.
ENDS
Information for journalists:
Policy Brief: Avoiding hot air in the 2015 Paris agreement here
Play the CAPMAN videogame to help this climate superhero take carbon out of the game here
