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Among all international actions on climate change the most far reaching is the United National Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), ratified by nearly every country, which sets the goal of holding greenhouse gas emissions below the level that risks dangerous instability and wide-ranging impacts. To implement it, most of the OECD countries have adopted the Kyoto Protocol, which imposes limits on the emissions of 36 industrialized countries. But the world's biggest source of emissions, the United States, as well as Australia have refused to join Kyoto and accept binding emissions reduction targets. And the protocol puts no limits on the developing countries, in some of which emissions are rising rapidly.
The fact that major emitters have not accepted targets calls into question the long-term effectiveness of the UNFCCC and the protocol. One basic issue of policy design is whether to proceed with more emissions limits or to go to some other kind of rule. The current situation has stimulated new research aimed at understanding the weaknesses of the present treaties and how they might be addressed. This research has suggested modifications and alterations to the existing agreements, the establishment of parallel agreements, and even the replacement of the UNFCCC, the protocol, and indeed the UN process itself.
In any case, the Kyoto limits on emissions expire in 2012, which lends a degree of urgency to the negotiations. The great challenge is to develop agreements that all the major countries will support, using methods that have realistic promise of slowing and then reducing emissions in the years ahead.
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Panel: Low Carbon Economics in
Developing Countries
Understanding Transatlantic Differences
An RFF Co-Hosted Seminar
Speakers discuss the uncertain future of Clean Development Mechanisms (CDM's), the challenges facing growing economies, and the changing perspectives of the U.S. and Europe. |
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