In 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was signed by some 192 countries in the United Nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions based on the scientific consensus that global warming was increasing due to human activities; with 36 developed countries having mandatory compliance. China, India and other developing countries were exempted because they were not main contributors to emissions. The financial crisis of 2007/2008 helped reduce emissions. Between 2008 and 2012, these countries agreed to cut their emissions to below 5%. During a conference in Doha, Qatar in 2012, this protocol was extended to 2020 with 37 countries having a binding target. Countries such as the US and Canada however did not sign up for the second commitment as their national emissions were slightly greater than their targets.

In 2015, another treaty called the Paris Agreement was signed by 195 countries in order to set a global framework that will limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius and is separate from the Kyoto protocol. How has the emission activity globally changed since the implementation of the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement changed, especially for developed countries. Can these countries contribute towards effectively reducing greenhouse emissions thus keeping the temperature of the earth to well below 1.5 degrees Celsius?

Did countries that were excluded from mandatory compliance contribute towards emissions? Did the Kyoto protocol fail?

The variables that will be looked at are country, year, co2, cumulative_co2 and share_global_cumulative_co2 which is cumulative production-based emissions of carbon dioxide (co2) since 1750, measured as a percentage of global production-based emissions of CO2 since 1750. This is based on territorial emissions, which do not account for emissions embedded in traded goods. Each country's share of global CO2 emissions has been calculated by Our World in Data using global CO2 emissions provided in the Global Carbon Budget dataset. Global emissions include all country emissions as well as emissions from international aviation and shipping.

The design choices of using colors and lines to show trends and also differentiate countries that are being successful in reaching the climate targets enable us to see how much the carbon emissions continue to increase even with the existence of these treaties, and how as people who care about the state of our home in the future need to step up and play our role in curbing this menace to sustain the earth.

Visualizations

• Datasets for CDP competition

I want to make a timeline comparing the carbon emissions of countries over the period where the Kyoto protocol was in effect and the current period in which the Paris Agreement is currently in effect. I also want to look into the continents that have the highest carbon emissions and their carbon emissions value over the same period of time. My design choices of using colors and lines to show trends and also differentiate countries that have been successful in reaching the climate targets enable us to see how much the carbon emissions continue to increase even with the existence of these treaties and how we as individuals and people who care about the state of the earth in the future need to step up and play a more active role in curbing this menace to sustain the earth.

• Kyoto Protocol Fast Facts