Kyoto Protocol
The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty aimed at combating climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Established in 1997 during negotiations in Kyoto, Japan, the Protocol set specific targets for industrialized nations to lower their emissions between 2008 and 2012. Notably, it exempted developing countries from mandatory reductions to avoid imposing excessive burdens on their economies, despite their growing contributions to global emissions. Key commitments included a 7% reduction in emissions for the United States from 1990 levels, an 8% reduction for the European Union, and varying targets for other nations.
The Protocol faced significant opposition, particularly from the United States, where critics argued that its terms would undermine economic competitiveness while failing to address emissions from rapidly industrializing countries, notably China. Despite these challenges, the treaty garnered support, with many arguing that industrialized nations, as major contributors to greenhouse emissions, should take the lead in reductions. Following its ratification by Russia in 2004, the Protocol entered into force in 2005. Though the U.S. never ratified it, the Protocol ultimately contributed to a reported 20% reduction in emissions among the involved nations a decade later. The treaty has since been extended and remains a pivotal element in global climate negotiations.
Kyoto Protocol
Identification An international agreement to control global warming by curtailing the production of greenhouse gases
Date Negotiated December 1–11, 1997
Building on the voluntary reduction targets of the Framework Convention on Climate Change, negotiated at the Rio de Janeiro summit in 1992, the Kyoto Protocol provided that the industrial nations plus the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries would reduce the emission of greenhouse gases an average of five percent in the period from 2008 to 2012. The treaty entered into force in 2004 when Russia was the final industrial nation save one to ratify the agreement. The United States has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol and is not expected to do so.
The 1992 Rio Declaration was based on the recognition that the production of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases was helping to cause global warming. The declaration provided for only voluntary reductions. By 1995, it had become evident that governments must agree to mandatory reductions. In the spring of 1997, representatives from industrialized and developing nations met in Kyoto, Japan, to negotiate reduction targets. During the talks, it was agreed that developing nations would be omitted from the first-round obligatory reductions, as such reductions would impose too great a burden on these nations. Although developing nations’ output of greenhouse gases was increasing rapidly, it was still less than industrialized nations’ emissions.
The US delegation, responding in part to criticism at home, tried to include the less-industrialized nations in the requirements of the treaty but failed to win support. Even though the US Senate indicated its disapproval of what appeared to be the treaty stipulations, the US delegation signed the agreement. Aware of the opposition in Congress, President Bill Clinton chose not to submit it to the Senate for ratification. President George W. Bush would indicate opposition to the treaty after he assumed office in 2001.
In order to enter into force, the protocol required ratification by fifty-five nations, including countries that had been responsible for 55 percent of the emissions produced in 1990. Because of US opposition, it was necessary for all other industrialized nations to ratify the treaty for it to enter into force. Russia’s ratification of the treaty in November 2004, led it to enter into force in February 2005.
The Kyoto Protocol specified targets for reducing carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases in the period from 2008 to 2012. The United States was to reduce emissions by 7 percent from 1990 levels, the European Union and some other European nations were to reduce emissions by 8 percent, Canada and Japan were to reduce emissions by 6 percent, and Russia and Ukraine were to hold emissions constant. The less-developed nations were expected to try to hold down emissions voluntarily, but no targets were mandated. The delegates at Kyoto were aware that less-industrialized nations such as China would have to reduce the growth in emissions in the long run if global warming was to be curtailed. A 5.2 percent reduction in emissions below 1990 levels was expected if all nations met their targets. The primary target of emission reduction was industry, especially coal-fired power plants, but agriculture was also a major source of some greenhouse gases.
Opposition in the United States
Opposition to the Kyoto Protocol came from two related groups in the United States. The first, particularly the representatives of some oil companies and their political friends, indicated that global warming was not influenced by human action or that its impact was severely overstated; therefore, there was no need for a reduction in greenhouse gases. By the late 1990s, this perspective was becoming increasingly discredited, as most scientists agreed that global warming was human-caused.
The second group of opponents agreed that global warming was a problem and that actions should be taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They argued that the Kyoto Protocol was a badly flawed agreement, one that would reduce the competitive position of the United States in the world marketplace. These critics pointed to the rapid growth in greenhouse gases by countries such as China. China’s path to industrialization was being supported by the extensive burning of coal, a major source of carbon dioxide as well as other polluting gases. Failing to regulate the emissions of nations such as China or India would give them an economic advantage because of their low costs of production. These critics also pointed out that some of the less-industrialized nations would soon be major contributors to the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, so failing to regulate them would make a reduction of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere harder to achieve.
The second group of opponents made strong points against US ratification of the agreement as written. Efforts would be made at a conference held in Berlin in 2002 to try to address some of these criticisms, but no agreement was reached. Supporters of ratification in the United States and abroad made the point that the reduction of greenhouse gases had to start somewhere. The industrialized nations both were the major contributors to emissions and were better able to withstand potential economic costs of reductions.
Impact
The failure of the United States to ratify the Kyoto Protocol cast the country in somewhat of a bad light internationally. Some foreign nations see the United States as more concerned with its own short-term self interest than in dealing with a major international problem. Even though the United States has not ratified the agreement, it is making some efforts at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Canada warranted similar criticism when it became the first country to formally withdraw from the agreement. Facing a penalty of $14 billion because it was so far behind meeting the targets set out in the protocol, Canada legally removed itself from the obligation in 2011. The country's prime minister, Stephen Harper, had always been opposed to the agreement, especially because it excluded the United States and China, two of the world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases.
At a conference between UN delegates that took place at the end of 2012, after difficult negotiations, the Kyoto Protocol was extended to the year 2020. However, while some nations settled upon a further set of emissions cuts, others, such as Japan, Russia, and New Zealand, did not.
Regardless, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change announced in early 2015 that, ten years after the Kyoto Protocol was originally enforced, the countries involved in the targets stipulated by the agreement had exceeded those requirements, having reduced emissions by 20 percent.
Bibliography
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Eilperin, Juliet. "Kyoto Protocol Extended in Contentious U.N. Climate Talks." Washington Post. Washington Post, 8 Dec. 2012. Web. 3 Apr. 2015.
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