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Kyoto Protocol - A-Z of Global Warming

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Published: 25Jul2008
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This article, taken from The A-Z of Global Warming deals with the Kyoto Protocol. A major political force which brought global climate change to the fore was born from the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, where an agreement called the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), was agreed. This followed hot on the heals from the release of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's ( IPCC ) first report on climate change.

The Kyoto Protocol as it became known entered into force on the 16th February 2005 and became the first important step in relation to climate change as governments and countries around the world committed themselves to a binding agreement to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions.

The road to Kyoto was a bumpy one. After agreeing the UNFCCC, governments realised that action had to be taken to set real reduction targets, and so, in 1997, in Kyoto in Japan the parties to the UNFCCC reached agreement on what later became known as The Kyoto Protocol.

For the protocol to enter into force it had to become ratified by at least 55 parties to the convention, and incorporating a list of 35 industrialised nations. These nations together with the EU, accounted for at least 55% of the total of CO2 emissions in 1990.

A stalling point came however when the USA, having signed up to the protocol under President Clinton, withdrew from the protocol when President Bush was elected in early 2000. Luckily, the protocol was given a lifeline by Russia, when President Putin ratified the agreement on November 18th 2004.

The protocol's main aims required industrialised countries to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gasses by 5% below 1990 levels by 2008-2012. The gasses covered are the 6 main greenhouse gasses, namely;

- Carbon dioxide (CO2);
- Methane (CH4);
- Nitrous oxide (N2O);
- Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs);
- Perfluorocarbons (PFCs); and
- Sulphur hexafluoride (SF6)

The agreement attempts to do this by providing for various market based mechanisms to assist countries or individual companies meet their respective emission targets. Emissions caps are put on Annex 1 countries, giving each country an emissions quota, or allowable amount of CO2 emissions. So for example the European Union has been given a target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 8% below 1990 levels. This target can be distributed amongst member states.

In general developed Annex 1 countries have to reduce their CO2 emissions, whilst developing non Annex 1 countries have not had to cap their emissions, but instead will participate in CO2 emission reducing projects.

There are three basic methods open to countries to meet their targets;

Emissions Trading Schemes (ETS)

As explained above, these schemes allow for the trading of CO2 emissions for carbon credits. So, if a country or industry exceeds their assigned amount of CO2 emissions, they would be able to purchase credits from a country or industry that has not. Only a small proportion of global emissions are covered by these schemes, and currently the EU has the largest scheme, the EU ETS.

Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM)

This is a way for Annex 1 countries to earn credits by investing and funding climate friendly projects and technologies in developing countries, thus helping control emissions in these countries.

Joint Implementations Projects (JIP)

Basically these are the same as CDM's, but with Annex 1 countries investing in climate friendly technology in other Annex 1 countries, rather than other developing countries.

Whilst Kyoto is an incredible achievement it is at present the world's only agreement attempting to limit greenhouse gas emissions and global warming. There are problems due to the fact that the USA has not ratified the Protocol, and neither had Australia, until literally 3rd December 2007, following a change in government.

Whist the USA refuses to sign up to the protocol other countries such as India and China, whilst ratifying the Protocol do not have obligations at present to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions on the basis that these countries were not responsible for today's greenhouse gas levels. However, at the rate these countries are developing, they will soon be the World's major polluters as they build more and more fossil-fuelled electricity plants to satisfy their energy needs. Indeed it is believed that in June 2007 China overtook the USA as the world's highest CO2 emitters

It is true to say however that instead of the richest countries reducing their emissions by 5% to 1990 levels, they have in fact increased them by some 10%. It is believed that only four countries, UK, France, Germany and Sweden are on track to meet the targets set.

Recently the UK announced the introduction of a Climate Change Bill making it the first country to set legally binding targets to reduce its CO2 emissions. The Bill will receive royal ascent in the autumn of 2008, and it will set targets to reduce CO2 emissions by 60% by 2050.

What will happen after 2012? Well, UN secretary Ban Ki-moon convened a high level event that took place in New York on 24th September 2007, to promote discussions on ways to move the international community toward negotiations on a new global agreement on climate change. This took place at the UN climate change conference which took place in Bali on 3rd December 2008. The purpose of discussions will be to try and get in place a multilateral framework for action on climate change, already refered to as Kyoto 2, for the period after the Kyoto agreement ends in 2012.

Whist the Kyoto Protocol was a big step in the right direction, it seems that much more needs to be done and far greater cuts made to CO2 emissions to ensure global temperatures do not rise over critical levels.

This article is taken from The A-Z of Global Warming book to be published in September 2008. A Lawyer by profession i felt inspired to write the book following a viewing of Al Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth in November 2006. Further information can be found on the following website, http://www.a-zofglobalwarming.com

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