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Doc of the Day: The Kyoto Protocol
02/16/10
The Kyoto Protocol, an international environmental treaty aimed at reducing the worldwide emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) that contribute to global warming, took effect on February 16, 2005. As an amendment to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the Kyoto Protocol set legally binding targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European community to reduce their GHG emissions by 5.2 percent from 1990 levels by the year 2012.
Countries that ratified the Kyoto Protocol agreed to reduce their emissions of six primary greenhouse gases that build up in the Earth’s atmosphere and contributed to increases in average global temperatures: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexafluoride, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), and perfluorocarbons (PFCs). Participating nations were encouraged to meet their targets through such national measures as restricting pollution, modernizing transportation, and developing renewable energy sources. The treaty also provided several market-based mechanisms, like emissions trading, to help participating nations meet their targets cost effectively.
By the end of 2009 the Kyoto Protocol had been ratified by 187 parties to the UNFCCC. Although the United States signed the treaty, it is not bound by its terms because the U.S. Congress never ratified it. Opponents of ratification objected to the fact that the treaty only specified emissions-reduction targets for developed nations, while sparing developing nations. They also worried that compliance with the treaty’s terms would harm the U.S. economy. Proponents of adopting the Kyoto Protocol argued that the U.S. participation was key to the agreement’s effectiveness. They pointed out that the United States accounted for the highest GHG emissions per capita of any country.
With the Kyoto treaty set to expire in 2012, President Barack Obama addressed the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, in December 2009. Describing global climate change as a “grave and growing danger,” he urged the members to take immediate action toward a new agreement and pledged a 17 percent reduction in America’s GHG emissions by 2020.