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The Kyoto Protocol

16 December, 2015 - 15:14

The world’s first major response to climate concerns came in the form of the United Nations– sponsored Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. This was followed by the signing of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, in which a group of countries committed themselves to reducing their GHG emissions relative to their 1990 emissions levels by the year 2012. Canada’s Parliament subsequently ratified the Kyoto Protocol, and thereby agreed to meet Canada’s target of a 6 percent reduction in GHGs relative to the amount emitted in 1990.

On a per-capita basis, Canada is one of the world’s largest contributors to global warming, even though Canada’s percentage of the total is just 2 percent. Many of the world’s major economies refrained from signing the Protocol—most notably China, the United States, and India. Canada’s emissions in 1990 amounted to approximately 600 giga tonnes (Gt) of carbon dioxide; but by the time we ratified the treaty in 2002, emissions were about 25% above that level. Hence the signing was somewhat meaningless, in that Canada had virtually a zero possibility of attaining its target.

The target date of 2012 has come and gone; and the leaders of the world economy, at their meeting in Copenhagen failed to come up with a new agreement that would have greater force. In 2012 the Rio+20 summit was held – in Rio once again, with the objective of devising a means of reducing GHG emissions.

The central challenge in this area is that developed economies are those primarily responsible for the buildup of GHGs in the post industrial revolution era. Developing economies, however, do not accept that the developed economies should be free to continue to emit GHGs at current levels, while the developing economies should be required to limit theirs at a much lower level.

To compound difficulties, there exists strong skepticism in some economies regarding the urgency to implement limits on the growth in emissions.