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by Robert Jawitz
The Kyoto Protocol to the UN
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted for use December
11, 1997 in Kyoto.
The purpose of this protocol was to have an international commitment to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions to respond to global warming. There were 182 parties
that ratified the proposal. Noteworthy, the US was absent. President Bush said,
explaining his refusal to ratify the treaty, the following, "This is a challenge that requires a 100% effort; ours,
and the rest of the world's. The world's second-largest emitter of greenhouse
gases is the People's Republic of China. Yet, China
was entirely exempted from the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol. India
and Germany
are among the top emitters. Yet, India was also exempt from Kyoto ...
America's unwillingness to embrace a flawed treaty should not be read by our
friends and allies as any abdication of responsibility. To the contrary, my
administration is committed to a leadership role on the issue of climate
change ... Our approach must be consistent with the long-term goal of
stabilizing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere." Bush was not acting alone
in this action. Just before the Kyoto Protocol was finalized, the U.S. Senate
unanimously passed by a 95-0 vote the Byrd-Hagel Resolution (S. Res. 98), which
stated the sense of the Senate was that the United States should not be a
signatory to any protocol that did not include binding targets and timetables
for developing as well as industrialized nations or "would result in
serious harm to the economy of the United States". On 12 November 1998,
Vice President Al Gore
symbolically signed the protocol. Both Gore and Senator Joseph Lieberman
indicated that the protocol would not be acted upon in the Senate until there
was participation by the developing nations.
On September 30, 2008, Germany hosted an international conference entitled
"Entering a New Era of Transatlantic Climate and Energy Cooperation" in Berlin
ostensibly to prepare for the November 30 to December 11, 2009 Climate
Conference in Copenhagen. The purpose of the conference was to have a dialogue
with representatives of various groups and governments from the US and Europe to secure US
participation in new accords. Copenhagen will be
the last opportunity for the world to address Kyoto before it expires in 2012 and to
prepare for a post-Kyoto treaty. It was clear from one of the sessions that the
BDI, the Federation of German Industries, was in agreement with the US position that China
and India
must be part of any new emissions targets of a treaty.
In a January 20, 2006 article in the IPS (Inter Press Service), it was
said, "Yet, by signing and ratifying the U.N.
Kyoto Protocol (Which it did as a developing
nation), China stands to gain more than just accolades for its symbolic
lead in the fight against global warming. The international mechanisms under
the Kyoto treaty could give China much of the environmental
investment it needs for free. Since it is a developing nation, China
would be exempted from reducing its own carbon dioxide output under the
protocol. Under the terms of the treaty, only industrialized nations, which are
mainly responsible for the present high levels of gases in the atmosphere, must
reduce their emissions by an average of 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.
But as the developing world's biggest polluter (and now being the world's
largest polluter), China stands to benefit substantially from the treaty
because it provides for a clean development mechanism (CDM) that allows
polluters in one country to earn credits by reducing GHG emissions in another."
China did benefit substantially both politically and economically and will
continue this advantage until 2012. It remains to be seen whether China will give up this advantage in a new
treaty and it remains to be seen if the US
will participate unless China
does.
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