Is the Kyoto Treaty a Success in Addressing the Rise in Greenhouse Gas Emissions - Research Paper Example

?Introduction The Kyoto Treaty or Kyoto Protocol is a set of binding obligations on the industrial nations to actually reduce the number of greenhouse gas emissions. This treaty binds industrial nations to specifically reduce their carbon dioxide emission by 5.2% below the levels they were having during 1990s over the period of one decade. This treaty therefore clearly specified the overall responsibilities as well as accountabilities of the industrial nations in terms of their obligation to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions in order to improve and protect the world environment. (Oberthur & Ott,22) This treaty was part of the efforts taken under United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Initially adapted in Kyoto, Japan in 1997, this treaty however has not yet been ratified by major countries and some other industrial countries like Canada have even withdrawn from the treaty. (The Guardian,). The lack of proper ratification and adoption of the treaty by major industrial nations have put serious doubts over the ability of the treaty to actually enforce protocols required to reduce the overall greenhouse gas emissions by countries which are responsible for most of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. (Ross,95) Over the period of time, despite the fact that countries have been able to cut greenhouse emissions, the over general emission levels have increased. These trends have put serious questions over the ability of treaty to successfully control the greenhouse emissions from the major industrialized nations of the world. This paper will argue whether the Kyoto protocol was successful in controlling the greenhouse emissions or not. Climate Change & Greenhouse Emissions Over the period of time, scientific evidence emerged which suggested about a climate change being caused by the way humans actually interact with their environment. The rapid industrialization witnessed by major developed countries during 20th century is considered as one of the key reasons behind this climate change. With over 100 years of greenhouse emission, the overall echo system of the earth is believed to be out of balance and a clear need for reducing the emission was recognized in order to stabilize the earth’s environment. (Henson,15) During 1990s, environmental issues became an strategic concerns and for the first time, it was recognized that there is a clear need for putting into practice certain standards and efforts which can obligate industrial nations to actually reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. 1990s saw great diplomatic efforts to actually develop a comprehensive framework for industrialized nations to actually agree upon certain standards to reduce the greenhouse emissions. These diplomatic efforts finally resulted into the development and introduction of what is now called Kyoto protocol or Kyoto treaty. (Grubb, Vrolijk, Brack, & Energy and Environmental Programme,54) It is critical to understand that the introduction of this treat was largely due to political reasons and is still considered as one of the major diplomatic breakthroughs on climate change. With the help of this treaty, countries were actually able to develop a framework which provided standard guidelines and obligations for industrial and other nations to gradually reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to protect the environment and reduce the consequences of climate change. Greenhouse emission actually occurs when sunlight hits the earth and as a result of this phenomenon some of the light is reflected back to the space. Greenhouses gases which are of six types actually trap some of the heat and it again reflects back on the earth. This phenomenon actually increases the earth temperature and resultantly climate change occurs. (Hardy,72) Though greenhouse emission occurs naturally however, excessive emission of carbon dioxide through industrial activity as well as emitted by humans has resulted into misbalance of the same. Consistent increase in population has also resulted into the consistent increase in the earth temperature also. It has been argued that since 19th century, the average temperature of earth has increased by approximately 0.6 Celsius degrees and is expected to rise by almost 3.5 degrees by the end of current century. This increase in temperature would be at the global level however, the regional and local impacts of the same may vary over the period of time. This consistent increase in earth’s temperature therefore is considered as a worrisome sign as the same would result into catastrophic climate change across the whole globe. (Baumert,56) It has also been suggested that the sea level will rise and resultantly coastal areas will be badly affected. Similar fate will be mate by countries located on the higher altitude also and as such overall consequences of the greenhouse emission may be serious enough to actually endanger the overall existence of earth and human race in particular. The Kyoto Treaty The Kyoto Treaty was the result of diplomatic efforts to actually reduce the emission of greenhouse gases and was binding on industrial nations to actually reduce their emission. This treaty was first enacted during 1997 under the direct role of United Nations and created an obligation on the industrial countries to actually take efforts to reduce greenhouse emission. The treaty itself was declared as one of the significant steps towards having environment on the political agenda of the nations and to promote an internationally coordinated action on the improvement of the atmosphere. (Faure, Gupta, & Nentjes,125) The major objective of the treaty was to actually contain human generated emission of greenhouse gases in order to reflect upon the underlying differences between the States according to their wealth and capacity to make the reduction. It is also critical to note that most of the obligations and bindings are on the countries given in annex 1 of the treaty as those countries which are not in the list are mostly poor and developing countries. The overall focus therefore is on making industrialized nations to become active in terms of their role in reducing the emissions to a sustainable level. (Schiele,193) The protocol was first introduced in 1997 however; it was ratified till 2005 where 191 countries have ratified it. One of the most important and notable omissions from the list of countries ratifying the treaty is United States. Canada also withdrew its support of the treaty and hence the overall political support the treaty required to fully materialize itself could not be manifested in its entirety. Under the treaty, each member country and specifically 37 top industrialized countries of the world were required to reduce their carbon emission by 5.2% on the average between 2008-2012. The base year considered for this was 1990 however since the treaty is not been ratified by United States therefore the overall emission targets have been lowered to 4.2% on the global level. (Shogren,65) It identified three instruments which were considered as necessary for the implementation in order to reduce the greenhouse gas emission. These three instruments included emission trading, joint implementation and clean development mechanism. These mechanisms were considered as flexible mechanisms as under this, countries can actually buy credits to reduce their emission level. Despite all the efforts, commitments as well as implementation of the treaty, it has been observed that on the global level, there is a consistent increase in the temperature. This rise in the level of temperature may point out to much serious consequences for the future and as Kyoto treaty may not have been able to deliver what it promised. Some of the countries including Canada, Russia and Japan publically stated that they would not take on further meeting the targets set under the Kyoto protocol. Canada also publically withdrew from the treaty because of the enormous financial liabilities it would have otherwise paid as a member of the treaty for failing to achieve the targets under Kyoto Protocols set for member countries. Probably one of the greatest achievements of treaty was the fact that for the first time, it was able to raise the awareness about the climate change at the global level. It was first major step towards making a global effort to actually initiate changes which can conserve the environment and help protect it. It also highlighted for the first time the capability of the world to actually solve the global problems related with the environment and how world can actually work together towards the achievement of common goal of environment protection at the global level. Kyoto Protocol was a failure One of the key failures of Kyoto Protocol was that it failed to achieve the required political support from countries like US. The refusal of US to sign the treaty signified the political will of the World’s superpower to actually not ratify a treaty which was meant to improve the overall environment. Subsequently, other top industrialized countries including Russia, Japan and Canada also withdrew the support thus making protocol largely reliant on the countries which were not truly industrial in nature or did not controlled much of the industrial activity at the global level. (Jowit) Theoretically, there were different arguments regarding the overall success and failure of Kyoto treaty to curb the emission of greenhouse gases. It was argued that the overall costs involved in reducing the emission were far higher than the overall benefits. This inequality between the costs and benefits has actually discouraged countries to take credible measures to seriously think over reducing the emission. Some studies however, do suggest that emission has reduced in major industrialized countries indicating that treaty do actually resulted into reducing the emission. It is critical to note that some countries and regions especially EU have claimed that they were able to actually reduce the carbon emission by targets much higher than what were actually given to them under the treaty. However, other reports have actually challenged these assertions on different grounds. First it was suggested that the statement of reduction in the emission of the greenhouses was based upon the consumption of carbon and not on the production of it. Secondly, the overall average emission has actually increased by more than 40% according to some reports. (Banks). These contrasting figures may suggest that treaty may actually have not succeeded in enforcing the reduction of the emission despite the fact that it obligated the members to do so. Some of the developing countries including China has also voiced their concerns regarding the higher contribution made by the industrialized nations. They argue that they should not be held responsible for the emissions made by the industrialized nations. (Morales & Chipman). One of the key concerns especially for developing countries was their economic interests which developing countries attempted to protect. One of the discouraging factors for developing countries was that they considered it against their economic interests to actually pay for the mess created by industrialized countries. The mismatch between the interests of the developed and developing countries therefore was also one of the key reasons as to why treaty failed to achieve its intended results during its given period. Kyoto treaty was also labeled as a wrong tool to actually control the emission and many suggested that there is a need to have more integrated and better protocol which can actually help reduction of emissions. This was however, mostly for the second stage of the treaty as first stage failed to yield the results and as consequences, countries like Russia and Japan explicitly stated to refuse to get along with the second stage of the treaty. (Christoff,840) Some of the developing countries including India and China have caused a catastrophic increase in the emission between 1994-2007. Only India was able to emit greenhouse gases by more than 58% during the period suggesting that both the developed as well as developing countries actually increased the greenhouse gases emission. (Guardian Environment Network,). One aspect of this could be the economic progress witnessed by countries like China and India during the period. Both countries have achieved higher level of economic output as well as higher level of manufacturing activity which resulted into an overall increase in the emission. It is also critical to note that the treaty has no binding targets on the developing countries and as a result of this, developing countries specifically contributed more to the emissions. Over the period of time, China has emerged as the leading industrial economy in the world with consistently high manufacturing output. With no bindings on the targeted emissions, China’s emission during the same period has increased by more than 150%. (PBL). These figures suggest that those developing countries which were specifically witnessing higher levels of economic growth. Many now argue that the treaty actually failed to set any targets for three of its largest emitters i.e. India, China and Russia. In the absence of any such targets, those countries specifically contributed higher towards the overall global emission thus nullifying the overall efforts taken by other industrial countries in EU specially. Treaty also failed to bring in US into its folds also as US was one of the largest contributors to greenhouse emissions. (Vlassopoulos,107) Another important argument for the failure of the treaty is based upon the fact that the targets were set based upon the total emission. These were considered as over-simplistic as a measure to assess the emission at the global level. The targets set for the countries however, also failed to take into consideration the rate of population and economic growth. (York). The disproportionate increase in population as well as economic growth has actually resulted into non-compliance with the overall targets set under the treaty. It is also important to understand that though treaty was introduced during 1992 whereas it was finalized in 1997 therefore it was already half way through to the period set for achievement of its targets. Such short period of time therefore could not allow countries to finalize the arrangements and develop infrastructure to achieve the objectives of the treaty. (Grubb,118) The above discussion indicates that Kyoto treaty actually failed to achieve the reduction of emission of greenhouse gases at the global level. It critically failed to achieve its objectives because of various reasons. World is now looking for post-Kyoto Protocol and what it aims to achieve after 2012. (Lane,78) Conclusion Over the period of time, scientists have been instrumental in suggesting that there is an underlying climate change. This climate change has been attributed to the man-made emission of greenhouse gases which have increased the overall atmospheric temperature of the earth. As a result of this change in the temperature many climatic changes could occur and thus can create harmful effects for the earth. One of the key reasons for this was industrial activity taking place in most of the developed countries. Kyoto treaty was one of the efforts at the global level to make it obligated for the industrial nations to actually reduce their greenhouse gases emissions over the period of time. The treaty was developed under the direct role of United Nations however; it failed to achieve its intended objectives. Firstly, it failed to achieve the backing and support of major industrial countries including US, Japan, Russia and Canada. Secondly, no restrictions on developing countries actually encouraged those countries to contribute more at the cost of developed countries. It was also suggested that the overall cost of implementing the treaty was relatively higher than the individual benefits being driven by the countries. Many suggested that the treaty was doomed to fail because of its ambitious objectives and lack of political support from the major industrial countries. 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