Scientists uncertain of countries meeting Kyoto Protocol targets

There is uncertainty over whether countries will meet the targets of the Kyoto Protocol after it was suggested that there is not enough environmental analysis taken on its results.

According to an article in New Scientist, analysing the products of the Kyoto pact could be "an impossible task".

This is because countries "can only report their emissions to within five to ten per cent of what they actually emitted," Matthias Jonas at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis stated.

As there is no direct means of measuring exactly how much carbon dioxide a country emits, analysing results will be a difficult feat.

Estimations that countries submit therefore come with "big uncertainties".

Speaking to the magazine, Euan Nisbet of Royal Holloway, University of London, said: "The significant uncertainty in greenhouse gas emissions needs to be tackled."

This comes shortly after Russia's ministry of economy Oleg Pluzhnilov confirmed that it had agreed to 15 Kyoto Protocol projects which have the potential to generate 30 million carbon offsets, Pont Carbon News reported last month.

Posted by Lauren Steadman