UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Kyoto Protocol - Research Paper Example

having realized the impending consequences of global warming, around 160 nations of the world had jointly implemented the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) by signing the Kyoto Protocol in December 1997. Although the protocol did not become legally binding due to the noninvolvement of the U.S. and Russia, most of the remaining industrialized nations had set targets to reduce greenhouse emissions and achieve their preset reduction goals by 2010. On taking stock of the situation, the European Commission had issued a warning that 13 of the EU’s 15 member states were set to miss their emission targets by a huge margin. (Guardian Dec 2003). Thus the Kyoto Protocol, which was widely considered to be the only feasible opportunity to address the impending environmental disaster, appears to have veered off the track.

While there has been a lack of international consensus on the ways and means to address the problem of global warming, global temperatures have been recording a steady rise along with the quantities of CO2 and methane in the atmosphere. To quote the National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration, “Last year alone global levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, the primary driver of global climate change, increased by 0.6 percent, or 19 billion tons. Additionally, methane rose by 27 million tons after nearly a decade with little or no increase.” (Science Daily April 24, 2008)

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has forecast in its Fourth Assessment Reports, 2007 that global warming is set to intensify in the coming years, the long-range effects of which would be unprecedented phenomena like rising oceans, melting of glaciers, dissolution of polar caps, extreme weathers, rise in tropical diseases, changes of seasons and disruption of ecosystems.

Reports from various parts of the world already hint at the possibility that global warming may be slipping out of human control due to the fact that CO2 has ‘tipped’ or crossed over its delicate threshold value of around 380 ppm in the earth’s atmosphere around the year 2005.