Underlying Problems of the Kyoto Protocol

Global warming is the steady heating of Earth’s land, oceans, and atmosphere caused primarily by human activity. Climate change is one of the world’s biggest challenges right now, from people actively arguing that it doesn’t exist- to other’s who don’t care enough to do anything about it. There’s evidence showing that climate change is happening and affecting our world now and from what it seems, if action isn’t taken, major consequences will soon arise. Most of the world’s land mass has experienced a 0.2-1.0 degree Celsius average temperature increase since the 1970s, the temperatures of the Artic has increased at almost twice the mean global rate. Climate change is caused by human factors such as greenhouse gases and ozone depletion and because humans are so dependent on fossil fuels in their day to day lives, the issue at hand is only going to get worse.

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).

The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change asserts that the time at which it is impossible to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius by mid century is precariously near. The 2-degree target was adopted by the countries within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate change, also known as the UNFCCC. The UNFCCC also released a report that stated that carbon emissions need to reduce by 40 to 70 percent worldwide by 2050 in order to achieve the 2-degree target. Put simply, we must sacrifice what is convenient and compromise, while we still have the choice to do so.

2. Maurice Strong (the Secretary General of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit) liked to distinguish between “success” and “real success” in international agreements. Discuss the 2015 Paris climate change agreement with regard to whether it represents success or real success.

Greenhouse gases concentration in the atmosphere has reached unprecedented levels, causing global temperature increase, floods and droughts, a loss of biodiversity, and ocean acidification among others. Failure to respond to climate change will only exacerbate these effects and threaten water, food and energy systems vital for our quality of life. After years of advocacy and calls by international actors, climate change has finally been placed on the forefront of the global political agenda. In 2015, climate change action was recognized as a core goal in the Sustainable Development Goals, and at COP21, 196 parties of the UNFCCC signed the Paris Climate Agreement aiming to limit global warming to well below 2oC (with efforts to pursue 1.5oC) above pre-industrial levels.

Environmental issues are becoming a growing concern for the world as well as for the world's leaders. Pollution, littering and the burning of fossil fuels are all problems that have drastically affected humans over the past few years. Impure drinking water, radiation, less ecological diversity and cancer are a few of such harms that the world has experienced. However, one of the most prominent concerns is the greenhouse effect. The greenhouse effect, a natural occurrence, is turning deadly with the introduction of humans and carbon emissions and is slowly heating up the world. In future years this could cause catastrophic consequences. Rising global temperatures threatens the very existence of the

The advent of industrialized civilization has brought to us many remarkable feats that enhance our everyday lives. Such things as automobiles, airplanes, tractors, mainframe computers, and even relatively simple machines like lawnmowers have intertwined themselves into the everyday culture of modern day industrialized countries.. These products have provided us enormous benefits compared to the types of lives our ancestors used to live. In the eyes of some, the consequences of industrial activities that have evolved around the world will not pose any problems in the future, however as most have realized, this is not true. Contemporary production processes use fossil fuels such as

Thesis Statement: Global warming is a growing concern of scientists and researchers who believe that it is a serious problem for our planet. The concerns and research have also been questioned and have even been called myths. Millions of people find themselves affected by these weather pattern changes and are concerned for their futures. Activists on both sides of the argument are very passionate and not afraid to attack each other in every way they can. There are many questions that are still not answered, however, we continue to see drastic weather changes to Earth. We must go beyond the arguments and learn as much as we can to stop what could possibly lead to the destruction of our planet, our way of life and our future.

The fundamental goal of the UNFCCC is to minimise the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to an amount that avoids the threat of anthropogenic interference with the climate system. As part of this goal the UNFCCC identifies the different economic, social and environmental requirements of the parties and helps to keep the climate policies on the foundation of justice in International Law. The Climate change policies also included national development programmes and are not used as a process for unjustified judgment or restriction of international trade.

The Kyoto protocol to the United Nations was a legally binding policy that establishes limits for industrialized countries on emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and other gases such as methane, nitrous oxides, hydrofluorocarbons and other chlorofluorocarbons that exhibit greenhouse characteristics to the environment (Houghton, Jenkins and Ephrams, 1990). Kyoto was a multi-faceted and very complicated policy which attempted to mold together political, socio-economic and legal issues associated with climate change. It was an effort to address climate change from a global scale, barring least economically able nations. (Houghton, Jenkins and Ephrams 1990).

The 2014 Climate Summit was completed in order to address the global issue of climate change and how all nations as a whole need to address the anthropogenic causes. The use of fossil fuels as an energy source is the major cause of the CO_2 emissions into the atmosphere. Figure 1 below shows the “World per Capita Carbon Emissions from Fossil Fuels from 1980-2010 and it can be clearly seen how the developed nations have released more carbon into the atmosphere than the developing nations” (1). Figure 2 below shows the “cumulative CO_2 emissions from 1900-2010, where about three quarters of CO_2 that has been released into the atmosphere is from the developed nations” (1). This illustrates that the global issues that we are facing now are almost completely caused by the developed nations. For this reason it is observed, by all nations, that there are common but differentiated responsibilities when it comes to this issue since some nations are much more developed than others and have contributed to the majority of greenhouse gas emissions from 1900-2010. The reasoning for this climate summit is that without any changes being made to how the developed nations continue to use conventional energy sources and how the

Goal 7 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) sustainability goals (2014) is to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.In breaking down this goal, a number of specific targets have been generated to make the goal more attainable. The first of which is being able to strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate related hazards and natural disasters in all countries. This target is difficult to assess because it is not directly measurable. The second target involves integrating climate change measures into all national policies, plans and strategies. It is easy to determine whether progress is being made with this objective because as more countries implement climate change

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

For the past two decades, governments have engaged in a series of negotiations to weigh in on issues of climate change. However, there has been a standstill over what must be done, who must do it, and what actions are required. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) adopted in 1992 introduced the issue into the political agenda. In turn, The Kyoto Procol (1997) included a few legally binding measures, namely the commitment to reduce global greenhouse emissions to 5.2% below 1990 levels between 2008 to 2012. This target that was reached early because of the process of economic transition in, for example, former Soviet countries. Nevertheless, at the same time, emissions from developed countries increased by 11% until the global economic downturn began in 2008, and some missed the target all together or were not even a party to the Protocol (Williams, 2015). More recent attempts have similarly failed to produce meaningful results – as

Framing climate change as an issue of sustainable development also has positive impacts for the governance of adaptation measures. It has been recognized that mitigation efforts have not sufficed to stop or even minimize the damage of global warming, with experts agreeing that the INDCs will not reach the intended reduction target of 2 degrees (International Energy Agency 2015). This has been argued to be the result of a ‘top-down’ approach that centers on nation states making international treaties concerning climate change (Harris 2012: 285). This is often unsuccessful because, not only do states have competing interests, but this approach “divorces” the problem from important economic issues (O’Brien 2006: 3) However, the discourse of sustainable development recognizes that the causes and effects of climate change are integral to all aspects of global society. This entails that climate change policy is not only environmental but is also concerned with decisions concerning aid lending, energy markets, and such decisions, are not only made by states but by corporate bodies, but also by civil society and the everyday person (Bulkely and Newell 2010: 106).