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Phoenix666 [soylentnews.org] writes:

All 36 countries that committed to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change complied with their emission targets [sciencedaily.com], according to a scientific study released today. In addition, the Kyoto process and climate-related policies, represented a low cost for the countries involved -- up to 0.1% of GDP for the European Union and an even lower fraction of Japan's GDP. This is around one quarter to one tenth of what experts had estimated after the agreement was reached in 1997, for delivering the targets set 15 years ahead. The US never ratified the Treaty and Canada withdrew, but all the rest continued and Kyoto came into force in 2005.

The results, reported in the Climate Policy journal, are the first published results to use the final data for national GHG emissions and exchanges in carbon units which only became available at the end of 2015. They show that overall, the countries who signed up to the Kyoto Protocol surpassed their commitment by 2.4 GtCO2e yr -1 (giga-tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year).

It would be interesting to see a full cost-benefit to compliance for those countries, with all externalities quantified and factored in.

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