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Kyoto Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Targets : Economic Issues and Prospects by
| Content Provider | Semantic Scholar |
|---|---|
| Author | Farzin, Yeganeh Hossein |
| Copyright Year | 2002 |
| Abstract | The first report of scientists through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 1990 indicated a likely rise in global temperatures and its potentially serious consequences. This led most participants at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro to sign the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), by which they undertook to reduce their emissions of the main greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, to1990 levels by 2000. However, by 1995 it became evident that few countries had managed to reduce their emissions. This failure, together with a second IPCC report warning that global warming had already begun and was on the rise prompted the need for legally binding emissions targets for greenhouse gases (GHG) and timetables for achieving the targets, leading to the Kyoto Protocol signed in December 1997. Under the Kyoto Protocol, 39 industrial countries (Annex I countries) committed themselves to reduce their total emissions of six greenhouse gases by 5.2 percent below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. However, to allow for the differences among the committing parties, the protocol sets different emissions reduction targets for different countries to achieve this overall target. Accordingly, the reduction targets for the European Union (EU), the United States, and Japan are 8 percent, 7 percent, and 6 percent, respectively. The protocol permits a number of other countries to increase their emissions over the period. Iceland’s emissions will be permitted to rise by 10 percent from 1990 levels, Australia and Norway will also be allowed to increase their emissions by 8 percent and 1 percent, respectively. Importantly, Russia and Ukraine are required only to stabilize emissions at 1990 levels. In 1997, Russia’s emissions were 30 percent below its 1990 levels, due to decline in economic activity and electricity usage since 1989. The protocol does not commit developing countries to any specific reduction targets. U.S. Participation Issue The Kyoto protocol will become a legally binding agreement 90 days after it is ratified by 55 countries whose CO 2 emissions are at least 55 percent of total emissions by the Annex I parties in 1990. However, a major unresolved issue impeding the progress of the protocol toward becoming a legal agreement is U.S. participation. Since the United States is the largest producer of greenhouse gases (more than 1/3 of the emissions by Annex I countries in 1990), it is highly unlikely that without U.S. participation the protocol will come into force, or even if does, that it will succeed in stabilizing and reducing GHG. On the other hand, U.S. compliance with its Kyoto target implies a noticeably large reduction from its business-as-usual baseline projected emissions (for example, about 28 percent below its baseline forecast for 2010). A study in November 1998 by the U.S. Business Roundtable (whose members include Exxon, General Motors and Chase Manhattan Bank) estimated that compliance |
| File Format | PDF HTM / HTML |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | https://s.giannini.ucop.edu/uploads/giannini_public/86/f6/86f6b856-73ff-445c-aff1-57453d202d94/fall2000_2.pdf |
| Language | English |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |
