Striving for carbon neutrality is an ongoing international battle whose importance is shown though its ubiquitous media coverage. Nonetheless, gaining this enhanced public knowledge system has been and continues to be an arduous road. While global warming has become the popular quagmire of the late 20th and early 21st century, the beginning came over 30 years ago. Cooperative global environmental action has spawned a list of worldwide treaties and agreements that seek to put a lid on emissions once and for all. This article will provide you with the basics on these agreements and focuses on the Kyoto Protocol.
UN Conference on the Human Environment, Stockholm (1972)
In 1972 the United Nations (UN) decided enough was enough, the world must act as one and account for the fact that the Earth is a shared resource that affects and is affected by all. Representatives from 114 out of the 132 countries who were a part of the UN at this time showed up and almost unanimously agreed that yes, all nations had an impact on the global community. Climate change, pollution, biodiversity, and human population growth were discussed and a set of national obligations were negotiated and agreed upon. Stockholm was seen by many as an absolute success because it accomplished its goal to have the diverse peoples of the world see themselves as one species, and one solid influence on the world. The most amazing aspect was that no science was involved in convincing these nations that this was so.
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)
1989 marked an important year or at least an important first step to thinking about the environment first. The United Nations began blueprinting its framework through a convention that aimed to “protect the climate system for present and future generations.” In 1992, the UN took their document to the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to be negotiated and 172 government representatives attended. As of August 2007, 192 countries have ratified the UNFCCC.2 Although the UNFCCC projected a multitude of sustainability-promoting measures, these ratified lists of green “how-to’s” added up to being merely suggestions, as they were not binding agreements with consequences for failing to follow the measures.3 Post-UNFCCC, larger and more productive agreements have been ratified, but the crucial aspect of the Rio Earth Summit was that it reopened the door to examining mankind’s responsibility to clean up its act and its emissions as well as attract nearly 10,000 reporters to feed these important doctrines and images back into the public media.4
The Kyoto Protocol
After the lukewarm accomplishments of the Rio Earth Summit, the United Nations found a glimmer of possible achievement in the Kyoto Protocol. In 1997 the world once again united, this time in Kyoto, Japan, to talk about the buzz behind global warming, scientifically examine the roots of its cause, and how to appropriately and once and for all stop polluters from emitting. The UN wanted to work as a worldwide force to solve this problem and not discourage nations from attending by pointing fingers. After seven years of arbitration, the Protocol was commissioned in 2005 by 141 countries, to date 183 nations have signed.5 The ambition: reduce green house gas emissions by 5% below the 1990 levels.
What’s So Great About Kyoto?
Like the earth summit and the Stockholm meeting before, Kyoto at first appears to mirror the forces previously attempted by the UN. But this protocol was more significant than the others. First, unlike the UNFCCC, those who signed the Kyoto Protocol are held accountable for their actions; suggestions are out the window, these reductions are for real. And the goal of five percent below 1990 seems austere, but it would ultimately mean that emissions are reduced 29% below projected 2010 levels.6 This time around there is also a comprehensive plan, not just a “hey lets do it,” rather a “hey, there are they ways we can and will actualize this feat.”
Kyoto has three market-based tools for lowering pollutants. First, it encourages a global system of emissions trading. Thus, if one country has exceeded its legal limit, then it can buy rights to emit from nations who are below the allowed green house gas emission levels.7 To learn more, see the Greeniacs articles on Carbon Offsets and Cap and Trades: http://www.wordpress-837916-4114959.cloudwaysapps.com/GreeniacsArticles/Capping-Trading-and-Selling-the-Right-to-Emit.html. Second, the Kyoto Protocol utilizes the Clean Development Mechanism, which allows countries to invest in or build a pollution-reduction project in a developing nation, such as putting up solar panels instead of electrical lines.8 Kyoto gets a standing ovation by experts for this one because it is an investment that aids the future of green technology. The last mechanism employed by Kyoto is Joint Implementation, which means that—like clean development—developed nations can do carbon removal projects in other countries to reduce their own emissions. This could include increasing the amount of carbon sinks or creation of a project that would cut pollution at the source (such as a clean coal project). The idea is for the global atmospheric carbon level to go down while advancements in clean energy go up.9
Copenhagen 2009
The next international climate conference is scheduled for November 2009 in Copenhagen. The United Nations hopes to renew the vows taken by Kyoto by creating and ratifying a new climate plan that will replace Kyoto.10 Kyoto expires in 2012 and the UN wants to keep the global environmental preservation momentum going far beyond then. To see what Copenhagen has to offer you can visit its official website at: http://www.cop15.dk/en/Frontpage.htm. Hopefully, this next worldwide affair will show more successful than Kyoto, continuing the United Nation’s ever improving trend.
