KATHMANDU: The 23rd United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP- 23)-2017 held recently in Bonn, Germany to discuss reducing climate change effects, and advance the aims and ambitions of the Paris Agreement, has urged all the parties to ratify the Kyoto Protocol.

Adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on 11 December 1997, and came into force on 16 February 2005, the protocol is an international agreement linked to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, which makes its parties be bound to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction targets.

Those countries failing to sign the protocol will be notified for the same, said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres at the conference.

Its first commitment period started in 2008 and ended in 2012.

According to the protocol, during the first commitment period, 37 industrialised countries and the European Community pledged to cut the emission by five per cent to the level in 1990, and by 18 per cent during the second commitment period from 2013 to 2020.

However, of the total 144 parties to the protocol, only 91 have endorsed it.

Those parties who ratified the protocol include China, and all South Asian countries except Nepal and Afghanistan.

Likewise, the meeting held in Doha in Qatar in 2012 also concluded to cut the greenhouse gas emission by 18 percent between 2012 and 2020.

Similarly, the 21st COP conference held in Paris in 2015 signed a Paris Agreement, which also urges the developing, or underdeveloped countries to be part of the campaign to reduce the emission.

The meeting concluded that it would not be enough for only developed countries involving in the campaign to reduce the emission.

Intended nationally determined contributions (INDCs) are required to submit in each five years, according to the agreement.

Economic security of the Adaptation Fund which was earlier reduced to only the protocol, is ensured with the decision to accommodate it in the Paris Agreement, which is a good achievement in this sector, said Manjit Dhakal, General Secretary of the Clean Energy Nepal.

The protocol has a provision that two per cent of tax will be levied, and deposited into the adaptation fund from the Clean Development Mechanism.

Least developed or developing countries like Nepal can have a good income through carbon trade as well. Although the market for carbon trade has decreased lately, its future prospect is said to be good.

Nepal has already joined the money-making club through carbon trade. According to Executive Director for the Alternative Energy Promotion Centre Ram Prasad Dhital, Nepal earned approximately USD 8.4 million through eight various projects through carbon trade so far. Likewise, it is all set to sell carbon worth USD 2 million, he added.

Although Nepal has good opportunities to earn more income through carbon trade, it is yet to ratify the protocol. "Nepal is not compelled to sign the protocol. It however can get many benefits through carbon trade by launching various climate change adaptation programmes," said Yugan Manandhar, Nepal's Deputy Director for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).