The success of the kyoto protocol in reducing carbon emissions

Climate change has been at the center of global scientific and public debates for the past few decades. This issue has become a focus of attention not only because of its increasingly negative impacts on existing ecological and economic systems, but also because of the uncertainties that these impacts create. While greenhouse gas emissions have increased by 70% compared to 40 years ago, air pollution levels have increased exponentially. Given the transboundary nature of air pollution, global collective action is needed to solve such a global problem. Therefore, it is not surprising that the number of international agreements and policies aimed at reducing air pollution has increased exponentially since the late 1970s. One of the most important agreements is the Kyoto Protocol, which was signed following the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The Kyoto Protocol is considered one of the international but unilateral environmental regulations to combat climate change. However, the potential side effects of the protocol, which aims to reduce emissions in industrial economies, have always been controversial on the base of "displacement of production". In this thesis, the effectiveness of the Kyoto Protocol, one of the most ambitious agreements addressing climate change, was tried to be determined from a questioning perspective. As a result, it was seen that the ratification of the protocol was partially successful in reducing emissions, but did not achieve the expected level of success.