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International Climate Change Policies |
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Politics and Climate Change
"The main obstacle to dealing with climate change is neither economic nor technological. It is political" said Michael Oppenheimer, professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University and one of the authors of the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 4th Assessment report. Governments must have the political will to form policies that address climate change in a substantive and long-term way.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
The UNFCCC was signed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in June 1992 by over 150 nations, including the U.S. The Treaty sets an overall framework for climate protection and sets as an objective the need to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would not produce dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system. However, by the mid-1990s, a growing concensus in the international community believed that without any binding emissions limitations, very little progress would be made to reduce emissions. See a chart of emission levels by Annex I (developed) country from 199o to 2004.
Kyoto Protocol
To date, the Kyoto Protocol has been ratified by 175 parties (countries and other government agencies), and 36 countries and the EEC are required to reduce greenhouse gas emissions below levels specified for each of them in the Protocol. The individual targets for Annex I Parties are listed in the Kyoto Protocol’s Annex B. These add up to a total cut in greenhouse-gas emissions of at least 5% from 1990 levels in the commitment period 2008-2012. Notable non-signatory nations are the U.S., and Australia. China and India, despite their large contribution to global emissions, have ratified the Protocol, but they are exempt from its requirements because they are both classified as non-Annex I nations or developing nations.The Kyoto Protocol includes "flexible mechanisms" which allow Annex I economies to meet their GHG emission limitations by purchasing GHG emission reductions from elsewhere. These can be bought either from financial exchanges (such as EU Emissions Trading Scheme) or from projects which reduce emissions in non-Annex I economies under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), or in other Annex-1 countries under Joint Implementation, which applies to transitional economies primarily in the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. Read more about the Kyoto Protocol.
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What Impact Will the Kyoto Protocol Have On Emissions? |
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| Even with the Kyoto Protocol in place, emissions are still predicted to increase above 1990 levels by 30% by 2020. Limitations of Kyoto Protocol >> |
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International Links on Climate Change |
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| Read about efforts to tackle climate change around the world. Select a country and learn about its government agencies and organizations and their policies toward climate change. International links on climate change. >> |
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