Climate change treaty comes into force on Wednesday

After nearly a decade of debate and years of not knowing if there would be enough support worldwide, the UN’s first legally binding environmental legislation, the Kyoto Protocol, will come into effect on Wednesday (16 February).

Despite having barely garnered enough support to become law, critics of the Protocol say that without the US's support, the document has no chance of stopping climate change.

Signed in 1997 in Kyoto, Japan, the Protocol sets up legally binding limits for c...