Consider this to be two glossaries in one. First, the infamous Kyoto Protocol, and agreement "developed by and for industrial nations in 1997 at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) in Kyoto, Japan, to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases by at least 5% below 1990 levels by 2012. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in 2005 without the US ratifying it. Currently, the EU expects to achieve the goals two years early, in 2010."

The Kyoto Protocol is likely the famous cap-and-trade proposal ever put forth. In a cap-and-trade proposal, says Sara Frieden, "a cap is placed on a group of polluters by environmental regulators to limit the amount of emissions allowed. A polluter must pay for excess emissions. The cap is generally set at a significantly lower level than what a polluter, such as a power plant, had formerly emitted. Each unit of pollution now has a financial value, a real motivation in a capitalist economy. Companies can buy and sell permits in order to continue operating in the most profitable manner for them. Companies that choose to keep polluting must pay a premium to companies who choose to reduce their emissions, while pollution overall is reduced."

FYI: 200 US cities have "ratified" the Kyoto Protocol cap-and-trade on their own.