International regulations

A milestone in the history of international climate protection is the Kyoto Protocol, which in 1997 determined for the first time binding reduction targets for industrialised countries and established the flexible mechanisms – Joint Implementation, Clean Development Mechanism and International Emissions Trading. Austria ratified the Kyoto Protocol in 2002. The Protocol finally entered into force on 16 February 2005.

Since 1995 various decisions concerning climate protection and emissions trading have been passed on the Conferences of the Parties (COP) of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In 2005, after the Kyoto Protocol had entered into force, the first Conference of the Parties took place in combination with a Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (COP/MOP). In these combined meetings, numerous COP/MOP decisions have been passed since 2005 in order to further specify the modalities of the flexible mechanisms.