The Kyoto Protocol in the International Environmental Law Context and the Post-2012 Scenario

The climate change issue arose in the late eighties, once the available scientific evidence started suggesting that the progressive increase in the greenhouse gases concentrations in the atmosphere may contribute to a large extent to the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect is a natural phenomenon, caused by a range of different gases including water vapour and CO2. It makes the heat emitted from the earth's surface to be retained within the earth's atmosphere. The progressive increase in the concentration of CO 2 in the atmosphere happening since the industrialization era has increased the natural greenhouse effect. As a consequence, the earth is becoming warmer. This gives rise to the so-called climate change phenomenon. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.