Introduction

Global warming as a result of excess production of greenhouse gases has been on the forefront of scientific debate in the last decade. The United-Nations-sponsored Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 was the first international platform at which these issues were discussed. The predicted increase in global temperatures was expected to seriously affect natural environments, affecting the balance of ecosystems and threatening the livelihoods of thousands of people. Because of much uncertainty, fuelled by incomplete climate models and the potential costs of mitigating measures, few governments at that time were prepared to take measures to counteract or reduce the predicted effects or consider reduction of gas emission rates. This has now changed with the activation of the Kyoto Protocol of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This protocol became active in February 2005 and recognizes the harmful effects of greenhouse gases on the environment.