In 1998, China signed the Kyoto Protocol and, like all other signatory countries, its enforcement

However, China accounts for 33% of the worlds Greenhouse gas emissions, mainly arising as a result of rapid urbanisation and industrialisation, and the deforestation that occurs in its wake. China is also suffering from desertification, coastal reclamation and severe climate change as are result of their long time blasé attitude towards environmental issues. While the Chinese Government now do acknowledge that environmental oversight has occurred, strict censorship within China deprives outsiders of receiving the full story of the environmental calamity that is occurring within China. Citizens within China are becoming increasingly concerned with governmental policy that regards further unnecessary degradation of the environment. A retired party official revealed that there had been 50,000 environmental protests within China in 2012 alone. China has amended numerous government acts and implemented strict new regulations in an attempt to curb pollution and Greenhouse gas production. However, the problem China faces cannot be swept under the 'bureaucratic rug' so to speak. The problem rests with the lack of an alternative clean energy to the fossil fuels currently used to fuel China's resource hungry industry. China has implemented numerous 'real world' measures to reduce environmental impact. Perhaps the most well known of these projects is 'Green Wall of China', which is a 4,500 km green belt

Its adoption in 1997 and ratification in 2002 furthered the fight against anthropogenic interference with earth’s climate system. Canada’s commitment began with a goal to reduce GHGs by 6% reduction from 1990 levels by 2012, or 461 megatons (Canada and the Kyoto Protocol 2016). In order to achieve these goals, legal requirements expected policies and measures prepared by the participating countries to reduce GHGs, by utilizing all available mechanisms, including joint implementation to earn emissions reduction units (ERU) to be counted towards the target, the clean development mechanism and emissions trading (Kyoto Protocol 1997). Every year, on the date set forth, every participating country was expected to keep track of emissions limits and performance standards, develop spending or fiscal measures, as well their expectation for the next year and results from the previous (E. Canada 2013). When the first reduction timeline was up in 2008, instead of a decrease in emissions, Canada recorded an increase 24.1 percent higher than 1990 levels. The lack of commitment was superseded by the new government’s ‘Made in Canada” effort to push country-unified laws, though no significant changes were

China’s increasingly steady growth has impacted the environment negatively as economic growth is normally at the expense of environmental sustainability. Environmental sustainability is the maintenance of renewable resource, pollution creation and non-renewable resource depletion that contributes to the quality of environment on a long-term basis. The environmental performance index ranked Australia 3rd whereas China is far behind on the list, being ranked 188th out of 195 countries. China being ranked heavily low is due to the massive produce of carbon dioxide emissions and pollution from factories, which eventually reduces the production of inputs into the natural environment, and thus represents waste and inefficiency. China does not have

China has shifted their view on the matter of climate change as they are trying to lower their use of coal as an energy source form 72% to 47% by 2040. This may be due to the fact that the Chinese administration is trying to make China a global clean energy leader, which would draw worldwide investments.

Threats caused from climate change are largely due in part to China’s energy production and

China as the fastest growing economy worldwide, is currently facing a challenging time to meet the energy demand of their population (Dalpino, 2005, p. 46). The heavily populated Eastern region is often subject to electricity outages (Sternfeld, 2010, p. 4), as the used electricity is mainly generated in the less densely populated West, a project supported by the west-east electricity transfer project (Oaks, 2004, p. 154). In the past, China has been mainly relying on their coal resources in order to meet this demand. The domination of coal consumption rose from the need of energy in a large country with a relatively low qualitative supply of natural gas and oil and the rather late development of these sources (Kang Z. , 2014).

The Kyoto Protocol is a binding international agreement, which began in Kyoto, Japan in 1997. As of June 2013, there were a total of 192 parties participating in the Kyoto Protocol, Canada was no longer one of them. Canada was one of the first to sign the agreement, in 1998; more than 4 years later, Canada formally approved the Kyoto Accord, in 2002. This meant Canada would have to decrease its emissions, by 6% in comparison to 1990 levels (461 Mt), by the year 2012. Despite some efforts, Canada failed to meet these requirements and in fact increased total emissions by roughly 24% by the year 2008. Canada formally withdrew from the Kyoto Accord in 2011, avoiding penalties and future detriments. The withdrawal of Canada from the Kyoto

First is necessary to clarify that the Chinese government (Christiansen & Rai,1988:214) tried to determine the economy by ideology. However, Mao ideas did not work at all and kept China as an underdeveloped country contrast to Xiaoping who clarified the challenges and did enormous reforms to rise china’s economy to one of the world leaders. But these economic reforms also developed unfamiliar problems for China. What the whole world deals with till nowadays. At present China is paying huge cost environmentally and socially for these developments (Tang et al.,2015) the economic developments and employment stability clashing with the environmental pollution and the people needs for higher living standards, and it leads to an ecological

Greenhouse gases alike water vapor, carbon dioxide, ozone and methane produced by power plants, transportation and factories are considered as the main driver for climate change with devastating impact on nature. Most recent efforts of global players ‘going green’ by offering carbon neutral products are quite unlikely able to stop global warming (John Gapper, 2006 and Heide Bachram, 2004). Hence, its again the governments responsibility to foster emission reductions by means of tagging a price to emission. U.N.’s famous Kyoto Protocol is an agreement on environment and sustainable development which was defined to support and monitor governments’ effort to reduce

For example, according to Olawuyi (2012), the agreement allowed developed countries to meet their emission reduction targets by investing in clean energy projects in other countries of their choice. As well, industrialized countries that had been able to meet and exceed their agreed emission reduction targets could sell their excess emissions to countries that found it difficult to meet their own targets (Olawuyi, 2012). Measurement of the gas emission is based on a simple equation where one unit of emission is equal to one tonne of CO2, or an amount of another gas with the equivalent global warming potential. These units can be purchased or traded to offset emissions of greenhouse gases, thereby creating a new commodity in the form of emission reductions or removals. Since carbon dioxide (CO2) is the principal greenhouse gas, this market is widely referred to as the “carbon market”, with each of the units traded commonly referred to as “carbon credits”("Guide to Carbon trading crime," June 2013). Although this trading mechanism offered countries flexibility, it made tracking gas emission reduction per country an almost impossible task to perform.

Following the signing of the agreement, China promised to: limit coal conception, focus on Green buildings and development, renewable energy, cleaner transportation, control super greenhouse gas HFCs, monitor greenhouse gas usage, and avoid high carbon investments overseas (NRDC). China already made some progress before the agreement was sign. According to the China Report, in 2014,

Reducing carbon dioxide emissions, an ostensible catalyst for global climate change, has become a priority for many of the G-20 economies and developed world since the Kyoto protocol was enacted. Countries have developed a myriad of mechanisms designed to drastically reduce their sovereign carbon footprint, yet from these diverse policy directives "a new commodity was created in the form of emission reductions or removals; carbon is now tracked and traded like any other commodity. This is known as the carbon market" (United Nations. Framework Convention on Climate Change. 2012. P. 1).

Founded on the belief that humans are ultimately responsible for global warming, the Kyoto Protocol was signed in 1997 and made effective in 2005 with the aim of reducing national quantitative greenhouse gas emissions by 5.2% (compared with emissions in 1990) in industrialised countries worldwide. This would equate to a 29% cut overall by 2010. The protocol intends to specifically reduce global emissions of “carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulphur hexafluoride, HFCs and PFCs” (www.kyotoprotocol.com). The protocol was later revised in its second commitment period stating that an 18% cut (compared with 1990) in emissions between 2013-2020 would be its next target. The Kyoto Protocol created “three market-based mechanisms...known as the ‘carbon market’” to support its targets (UNFCCC). These mechanisms covered emissions trading, the clean development mechanism (CDM) and joint implementation. Combined, the mechanisms are geared towards encouraging sustainable development using technology and investment, reducing emissions in an economically viable way and stimulating developing countries to reduce their emissions too. International cooperation was essential for the Kyoto Protocol to be enforced and achieve its aims. As the protocol seeks to reduce greenhouse emissions globally, efforts are needed from all industrialised countries emitting harmful gases into the Earth’s atmosphere. Without adequate participation

Carbon trading, often called emissions trading (ET), is a market-based tool to limit GHG. The carbon market trades emissions under cap-and-trade schemes (CTS) or with credits that pay for or offset GHG reductions. The scheme 's governing body begins by setting a cap on allowable emissions. It then distributes or auctions off emissions allowances that total the cap. Member firms that do not have enough allowances to cover their emissions must either make reductions or buy another firm 's spare credits. Members with extra

INTEREST WITH RESPECT TO CHINA- China overall economic development statistics reveal that , despite the emergence of modern cities and a growing middle class, china is still largely a developing country . Although rapid economic growth has made china the 4th largest economy in the world. Its GDP per capita is still below the world average. Yet ,the causes of climate change, namely greenhouse gas emissions from the fossil fuels and land use, are being linked to economic development in the