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The Kyoto Protocol Treaty
This web page, 'global warming' will be Deleted December 21
In the Kyoto Global Warming Treaty would require industrialized countries to cut back
on emissions of greenhouse gases by 5% below where they were in 1990, by the period
2008-2012. For the U.S., this would mean a 41% reduction in energy consumption,
expected to result in significantly higher energy prices, movement of U.S. industry to
developing nations, and job losses of over 2 million.
There have been some recent events which could have a great impact on the future of the
treaty.
Representatives from the 172 nations that endorsed the Kyoto Protocol met in Bonn,
Germany from June 2-12, to work out how to implement the treaty. Steve Jenkins, TECO
Energy Director, Energy & Environmental Issues, attended the meetings in Bonn, where
he provided input to U.S. government negotiators, and worked to mitigate the impacts
that implementation of the Kyoto Protocol would have on TECO Energy's coal and
coal-fired generation assets.
Fortunately for the U.S., not much progress was made in Bonn. Only Argentina agreed to
a voluntary commitment with the U.S.reduce to carbon dioxide emissions, in exchange
for the U.S. transferring efficientechnologies t to assist Argentina in developing
industrially. All other developing nations refused to make any commitments that involved
carbon dioxide emission reductions.
Another official meeting of the 172 nations in the Kyoto Protocol was in November 1998,
in Buenos Aires. Because the details of the Kyoto Treaty were not worked out in Bonn,
they needed to be worked out in Buenos Aires. If the details are not worked out, the
Kyoto Treaty can never be ratified by the U.S. Senate. Part of the U.S. delegation's
problem with the Kyoto Protocol is that it fails to meet the qualifications of the
Byrd-Hagel Resolution, which prohibits the U.S. Senate from ratifying any treaty
involving global warming that does not include developing countries and whose
economic costs are too high.
Two acts involving the Kyoto Protocol have been introduced in the 105th Congress that
need to be brought to your attention, the "American Economy Protection Act" (H.R.
3807) and the "Economic Growth and Sovereignty Protection Act" (S. 2019). Both acts
would prohibit the use of federal funds to implement the Kyoto Protocol to the United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change unless, or until, the Senate has given
its advice and consent to ratification of the protocol.
The Kyoto Protocol, signed in December of 1997, represents a vital step forward in
nations' efforts to address climate change. The Protocol includes legally binding limits on
the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of what are generally considered
"industrialized" countries and key provisions regarding accountability and flexibility.
However, many believe that the ultimate success of the Protocol in meeting its emissions
control objectives depends on three developments: the identification and adoption of
cost-effective options for compliance, emission reductions activities that start well before
2008, and broad inclusion of developing countries over the medium term.
Of the many potential compliance methods envisioned by the Protocol, a broad suite of
methods, utilizing various types of flexibility mechanisms and what some call emissions
trading, including the cooperative approaches of joint implementation, collective targets,
and trading with nations that have not adopted legally binding emissions commitments,
was expressly incorporated in Protocol language which establishes a framework for
market-based emissions trading and related systems. As this paper demonstrates, such
flexibility and market mechanisms provide important pathways to achieving the multiple
objectives of successful implementation of the Protocol, achievement of early reductions,
and participation of all nations, including developing nations.
After careful review of the Protocol and based on experience with emissions trading
programs both in the United States and abroad, EDF has developed this paper to explain
how flexibility, emissions trading and the closely related Kyoto Protocol mechanisms of
joint implementation, collective targets or "bubbles", and the Clean Development
Mechanism, provide a viable and useful implementation strategy for nations. At the same
time it identifies those aspects of the Protocol's framework which need to be further
addressed in Buenos Aires and it offers suggestions for addressing these issues.
The policy makers who will meet, or be represented, at the Fourth Conference of the
Parties (COP-4) in Buenos Aires this November face both an enormous challenge and an
enormous responsibility. Many believe that the devastating effects of extreme weather
events that have always been a part of the climate system could turn out to be, from the
retrospect of the next century, an advance snapshot of what may befall the planet on a
much more frequent and intense basis if human activity continues to result in emissions
that interfere with the climate system. Meanwhile recent events involving nuclear arms
proliferation and news about the volatility and interdependence of economies in
developed and developing nations around the world offer sharp reminders of the
importance of international cooperation in confronting common threats.
At the same time, long term efforts to keep the global warming phenomena (with it's
concomitant promise of problematic climate change) in check necessitates the
participation of the entire global community. Developing state participation in the
emissions reduction process can and should be negotiated into some type of binding
commitment along side developed states commitments for rapid diffusion of emissions
reduction and/or emissions friendly technology coupled with substantial commitments for
aid in securing them. In the long term, this type of negotiated provision is a win-win
proposition. Developing states emissions levels will be held in check and the
environmental technology companies (and the individuals who work for them) in the
north will profit.

pidgeotto017@juno.com

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Page Updated Sat Nov 20, 1999 2:14am EST