It asks industrialised countries to voluntarily stabilise their emissions to 1990 levels by 2000. They should take the lead in cutting down emissions.

1995: First Conference of Parties (CoP-1) to UNFCCC, held in Berlin. It adopted the Berlin Mandate, which called for a protocol with a schedule for reductions to be adopted in 1997. There would be no new commitments for developing countries.

1996: Little progress on agreeing to new targets at the second conference of parties (CoP-2) in Geneva. The US called for a realistic, verifiable and achievable target without indicating any base year. It then added that the proposed target should be met through emissions trading and project-based trading that had to include developing countries. The declaration, resulting from the process initiated at CoP-1, was directed towards an agreement on legally binding objectives.

1997: The ingenuous Kyoto Protocol was signed at the historic third conference of parties (CoP-3) in Japan. The protocol asked industrialised countries to cut emissions, even as the US held up negotiations till the last moment to force "meaningful participation" by key developing countries.

Under the protocol, Japan agreed to reduce emissions to six per cent below 1990 levels, the US agreed to seven per cent, and the EU agreed on an eight per cent reduction by 2008-2012. On an average, the protocol demands a cut of 5.2 per cent below 1990 levels in the period 2008-2012.

Several provisions found their way into the protocol to help industrialised countries meet their commitment cheaply. For instance, instead of focusing only on cutting fossil fuel use, three so-called flexibility mechanisms were introduced.

• Emissions trading: each industrialised country can trade in their entitlements to emit.

• Joint Implementation (JI): an industrialised country can invest in a project that reduces emissions in another industrialised country and claim credit for reductions.

• Clean Development Mechanism: same as JI, but funded projects are in developing countries. An even cheaper option to reduce emissions, since the cost of setting
up a project in a poor developing country is cheaper.

Moreover, industrialised countries were also allowed the use of forests and trees (they absorb carbon dioxide) and claim that they have reduced carbon dioxide emissions.

1998: At the fourth conference of parties (CoP-4), the Buenos Aires Plan of Action (BAPA) was formulated. The plan set end-2000 as the deadline to lay out rules and guidelines to implement the protocol. It focused on evolving detailed steps for flexibility mechanisms to take off, compliance with commitments under the protocol and development and transfer of cleaner technologies to developing countries.

1999: The Kyoto agenda shuffled along at the fifth conference of parties (CoP-5) as countries continued discussions on various elements under BAPA. A few were optimistic that the protocol could come into effect by the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002.

2000: The talks at the sixth conference of parties (CoP-5) failed, as the EU refused to give in to the US. The EU wanted industrialised countries to reduce emissions through domestic action by cutting fossil fuel use. But the US wanted concessions in the form of using forests and emissions trading without restrictions.

March 2001: The US rejected the Kyoto Protocol.

July 2001: A resumed session of CoP-6 was called. The already weak protocol was weakened further as the EU made compromises to get industrialised countries like Japan, Canada and Australia on board.

The final agreement was weak on compliance with no clarity on its legally binding nature. Heavy compromises were made on the use of forests and certain land use and land use change activities like afforestation and forest management, to meet Kyoto targets. No quantitative ceiling on the use of mechanisms was accepted. The final agreement did not provide any assurance that developing countries will get any funds from the North for adapting to climate change.