The key features of the Protocol submitted by AOSIS were:

 

    • Additional commitments for Annex I Parties to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by the year 2005 to a level at least 20% below that attained in 1990.
    • Setting targets and timetables for other greenhouse gases in a phased manner to be decided by the Parties to the Protocol; and
    • Establishing a co-ordination mechanism to facilitate international cooperation on specific economic, administrative and other policies and measures to implement the Protocol’s objective.

AOSIS presented the draft Protocol to the 11th Session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee and requested that it be transmitted to the first session of the Conference of the Parties to the Climate Convention for consideration in the context of the COP’s review of the adequacy of the commitments.

At the first session of the Conference of the Parties in Berlin, parties agreed that new commitments were indeed needed for the post 2000 period. In COP1 a new subsidiary body, the Ad hoc Group on the Berlin Mandate (AGBM) was established to draft a "protocol or another legal instrument" for adoption at COP-3 in Kyoto, in 1997.

The legal text submitted by AOSIS remained as the basis and the framework for the negotiations that followed. The objectives set out by the AOSIS was to protect the climate system for generations to come and the emission reduction targets were based on rigorous science and thorough economic assessments. Thus the AOSIS protocol proposal received tremendous support from leading climate scientists and established environmental groups such as Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and World Wildlife Fund.

AOSIS played a very important role in the negotiation process that started from Berlin and culminated in Kyoto. AOSIS was very firm in its negotiating stance to ensure that the protocol clearly meets its environmental objective and does not get ridden with loopholes and self interest. The AOSIS remained true to science and worked hard to ensure that the reduction targets were close to what the best scientific knowledge calls for.

The AOSIS spoke in the negotiations with the strength of thirty five voices, representing almost a fifth of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

 

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