Global Warming And The Kyoto Protocol

The UNFCCC is working with the various governments around the world to stabilize the amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere to keep the planet from warming more than 2ºC above pre-industrial temperatures (Watts, 2015). The most noted of the work is the annual Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings that began with COP1 in Berlin back in 1995. The COP3 adopted the Kyoto Protocol, even though it wasn’t fully accepted by all member nations. The COP21 was an effort to legally bind members to their submitted plans of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), defining what level of greenhouse gas production each nation would commit to not exceeding from 2025-2030. Prior to the INDCs, a bleak outlook was forecast in 2009-2010 of global temperature rising between 4-5ºC. That figure was restated by the UNFCCC prior to the COP21 in Paris, to below 3ºC, due to the commitments of the INDCs (Watts, 2015).

Climate change has become a major issue in global environmental politics as it has been shown to have a correlation with issues such as deforestation, biodiversity loss, and desertification. As Chapter 45 states “The 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) found consensus in the scientific community that greenhouse gas emissions have significantly increased because of human activity and, further, that the modest temperature increases we have already experienced are “very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations.” Due to this report awareness was brought to almost everyone of how serious human activity was to the global climate. In 2009, it was declared that “If global warming is to be limited to a maximum of two degrees C. above preindustrial values, global emissions need to peak between 2015 and 2020 and then decline rapidly”. To me this sounds foreboding and it is something that deserves our full attention immediately. To try and get a better understanding of how serious climate change is, I’m going to try and interpret chapter 45 which deals on climate change through 5 different paradigms of International Relations.

“Scientists have been warning about global warming for decades. It's too late to stop it now, but we can lessen its severity and impacts” - David Suzuki. Global warming, a primary topic of debate in various conversations throughout all levels of government, has been an issue for countless years. In fact, of the 134 years recorded, the 10 warmest years have all occurred “since 2000, with the exception of 1998 “(NASA). Solving a global issue such as this is not as easy as it may seem; however ,The Paris Agreement vows to do just that by setting a plan to limit global warming to well below 2°C in “the first-ever universal, legally binding global climate deal” (Europa). Before signing off on such an agreement one must analyze the many negatives

The climate change impacts of greenhouse gases threaten the economic development and environmental quality. These threats indicate that all nations regardless their economic growth should work collaboratively to reduce the emission to a certain level. Hare et al. (2011) argued that “climate change is a collective action problem” thus requires a global coordination from all countries. This indicates that actions from several countries would never be sufficient to address the climate change problem. If a global target to limit warming to 2°C or below is about to achieve (UNFCCC 2010, p.4) a broad range of participation is required (Hare et al., 2011). However, the increasing complexity of negotiation processes is inevitable. Each country will pursue its own interests during the

ratification on the Kyoto Protocol with certain amendments would be necessary to it secure America’s role as world leader. The Kyoto Protocol and the evolving United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) are excellent ways to restore U.S. reputation and showcase America’s eagerness to flight a major global crisis – climate change. As outlined by Charli Coon in his article, “Why President Bush Is Right to Abandon the Kyoto Protocol,” the U.S. did not spearhead the global warming agenda for many reasons. While, President Clinton signed the Kyoto Protocol, requiring emission levels to fall below their 1990 benchmark by 2012, the State Department rejected the protocol in 2001 because it would hurt the U.S. economy and it excused developing countries from the reduction requirements. During the Bush administration, the U.S. was withheld from ratifying the Kyoto Protocol because of the lack of participation from the developing world. Although the U.S. has the highest carbon emission rate, developing countries are increasingly burning up fossil fuels for energy and are expected to surpass U.S. emission level. The Bush administration argued signing the Kyoto Protocol would threaten the U.S. economy and at that time. Also, the U.S. did not possess any technologies for removing or storing carbon dioxide. They also refuted that there was any scientific evidence for global warming. The conversation on climate change has since progressed among members of the international community. With the topic becoming more urgent, U.S. participation in a successor agreement is possible under certain conditions. Firstly, the successor agreement should allow states to individually strategize initiatives to mitigate climate change that best meets their needs and are within their capabilities. Secondly, there should be “anti-dumping” clauses within any new agreement to protect American green industries, thus incentivizing U.S.

Everyday, people are waking up to climate change. What scientists predicted decades ago is happening right now. And we have little time left to preclude desolation. But those in power have not yet woken up,from their so called “dream” and those that have are unwilling to act. Following on from the ‘People’s Climate March’ in September 2014, the ‘Time to Act on Climate Change March’ on March 7th 2015 brought people together again on the streets of London to demand real change from the politicians. 2015 is going to be a crucial year for the climate because in December governments will all come together in Paris to strike a new deal for the climate. Our voice must be heard!

Everyday, people are waking up to climate change. What scientists predicted decades ago is happening now; we have little time left to preclude desolation. The governments look on the world is an hallucination. Those in power have not yet woken up,from their “dream world” to see the harsh reality we live in, and those that have are unwilling to act. In September 2014 there was the ‘‘People’s Climate March’ which was shortly followed by the ‘Time to Act on Climate Change March’ on March 7th 2015 which brought people together again on the

The world’s nations have already struggled to combat climate change and reduce global emissions. On Thursday, June 1st, 2017 President Trump announce that the United States would officially withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. Following through on his campaign promise, and defying the wishes of other world leaders who pleaded with him to remain a party in the pact. Governing with an American First policy, he said he was carrying out the will of the voters. “I was elected by the citizens of Pittsburgh,” Trump said, “not Paris.” Although, for those who do not feel they were represented while President Trump made his decision, there are several mechanisms for political change you can you can be a part of to invoke environmental

Still on the successes of building up a momentum for action, the climate agreement conveyed the collaboration of a broad set of actors to strengthen the commitments. The top-down approach of relying on national governments as leaders for climate response is now being reframed towards a more inclusive space for action. Much

After two decades of deliberations (Obergassel et al. 2016: 3), the international community has finally created an accord in which every state will play a role in trying to accomplish the major environmental goal of our time, preventing dangerous levels of global warming. On December 12, 2015, at the 21st Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 195 nations decided to adopt the Paris Agreement (Obergassel et al. 2016: 7). Upon being signed, the Paris Agreement has been widely hailed as a historic diplomatic success (Harvey, Fiona 2015). It aims to prevent the climate from warming to dangerous levels, with dangerous being quantified as the specific goal of “holding the increase in

Last week at Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Ms. Christiana Figueres, the charismatic Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) since 2010, gave a talk highlighting the great outcome presented at the COP-21 meeting last December in Paris. She referred to the 2015 Paris Agreement as a “historical achievement”1. Indeed, the fact that almost 200 countries have agreed and committed to

On December 12 of 2015, 195 countries made history by committing to the first truly global international climate change agreement (Paris Agreement, 2015). This agreement took place in Paris and was adopted under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The outcome of the Paris Conference on Climate Change was described as “revolutionary” (Venezuela) “marvelous act” (China) and as “a tremendous collective achievement” (European Union) that introduced a “new era of global climate governance” (Egypt) while “restoring the global community’s faith of accomplishing things multilaterally” (USA) (Paris Agreement, 2015).

With this in mind, the Kyoto Protocol (KP) was devised. The ultimate goal of the KP was synonymous to that of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC): to “prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system”(United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 2014). To achieve this, the KP outlined several goals that include:

The Paris climate conference was held in December and 195 countries participated in an agreement pertaining to climate change. This agreement is global and is expected to be put into plan in 2020. The main goal of this conference was to develop a plan to have countries participate in trying to bring global warming down to 2°C (European Commission, 2016). Like every other agreement that has had an impact on the world’s decisions there is both supporters and critics which results in the pros and cons of the development of the plan. There are justifiably arguments on each side and there is no right answer until the plan goes into full effect in 2020. Therefore, the issue of climate change is not going anywhere anytime soon.

Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement which was announced in Kyoto, Japan in 1997. It is considered as the supplement of the UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) and the main target for the Kyoto protocol is to reduce the emissions of anthropogenic greenhouse gases. Nowadays, there are 192 Parties that have signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol and the overall emission of these countries accounts for 61% of the total greenhouse gases emission on world. The agreement was designed first to solve the issue on greenhouse gas emission and it is one of the most well-known environmental issue in public and becomes worse and worse through time. Therefore, reducing greenhouse gas emission today is necessary and crucial for the sustainability of the environment. One of the most famous impact of greenhouse gas emission is the sea level increasing. As the tremendous amount of greenhouse gas emissions in 21 century, it leads to the global warming and thus the Earth’s climate has warmed by approximately 0.6 Celsius degree over the past 100 years. Increasing of sea level makes island countries such as Maldives face the problem that the majority of its land area might be underwater by the end of the century( Union of Concerned Scientists,2011).