The Federal Republic of Germany has made an internationally binding commitment to the Kyoto Protocol’s second commitment period (2013-2020). The ratification instrument has been deposited with the United Nations in New York. Federal Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks announced this development in the margins of the UN Climate Change Conference in Bonn. In Bonn, the EU announced that all member states and the EU will deposit their ratification instruments by the end of the year.
Minister Hendricks commented: " that we Europeans will achieve our joint climate target for 2020. This step makes our target binding under both European and international law. The fact that we in the EU have reached agreement on this step is another achievement here at the COP in Bonn".
The 1997 Kyoto Protocol only set out reduction commitments for the period up to 2012. New climate targets for developed countries up to 2020 were agreed in Doha in 2011. The EU has a climate target of a 20 percent reduction compared with 1990. The EU has been implementing this target under European law since 2012 – through emissions trading and the Effort Sharing Regulation.