In Bonn, June 2010, the AWGKP requested the Secretariat’s legal service to prepare a paper on:
1) the legal options available to avoid a gap between the first and second commitment periods;
and
2) the legal implications and consequences of a gap between commitment periods.
The paper published by the Secretariat is FCCC/KP/2010/10. This Fact Sheet provides a summary of what are, in our opinion, the key issues arising out of the Secretariat’s July 2010 paper on legal options of a gap between commitment periods of the Kyoto Protocol. It is not intended to be a comprehensive analysis and the Secretariat’s paper should be referred to for full analysis.