After protracted negotiations involving the highest political levels, the Kyoto Protocol to protect the global climate was adopted in 1997. Not only does it set, for the first time ever, quantitative limits for the emissions of greenhouse gases by industrialised countries, but it also introduced a number of complex and innovative mechanisms. In the project report that was published as a book, the negotiations and their result are analysed in detail. 

The adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in December 1997 was a major achievement in the endeavour to tackle the problem of global climate change at the dawn of the 21st century. After many years of involvement in the negotiation process, the book's two internationally recognised authors now offer the international community a first hand and inside perspective of the debate on the Kyoto Protocol.