KYOTO PROTOCOL

Post-Kyoto International Climate Change Agreement

Post-Kyoto International Climate Change Agreement

Introduction

The issue of global warming has increased so much in the past years .The concern regarding the issue is one of the most serious environmental concern. The major cause behind the increase of global warming is the emission of the greenhouse gases. These Gases have caused the world to suffer a lot because they are damaging the environment and are increasing the issue of global warming. The emission is the main component of the global warming. The climate changing due to which everyone in the world is being affected. This is the reason a United Nations framework Convention (UNFCC) got formed. This convention formed a protocol for fighting global warming known as Kyoto Protocol. The reaction of the international community to the Global Warming problem has been materialized through holding summits and the goal behind those summits has been actions to reduce the green house emissions. The first major step to tackle the environmental problem specially climate change was “Kyoto Protocol” while the Kyoto protocol has implemented goals to tackle this problems as it faced many challenges. There have been several attempts to face those challenges, and the most recent international initiative was “Durban summit”. This essay will discuss and highlight to what extend Durban is a success or failure was regard to tackling the global warming issue? While this essay will analyze the extend which the extent to which Durban is an efficient and effective way to deal with climate change.

I will discuss in brief Kyoto Protocol in order to give a context of the protocol.

Kyoto Protocol

Background

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) has a protocol known as Kyoto Protocol that is aimed at fighting global warming. According to this protocol, greenhouse gas emission is the major contributor to the global warming. The UNFCC is an international treaty that focuses on environmental issues and is concerned about the solving of the issue of global warming (Meadowcroft , 2000, pp. 372). Each participants, by building a legally-binding agreement by cutting down their greenhouse gas-emissions by 5% and the percentage changes from a participant to another such as USA was suppose to reduce by 7% and EU was suppose to cut down by 8% however, some other countries are permitted to increase their greenhouse emissions such as Iceland by 10% and Portugal by 27%. It wants the temperature of the world to be stabilized at a rate that will be safe for the living things. Today, the issue of global warming is not a very serious concern; however, if it is not addressed today, it will become a very serious issue (Page, 2007, pp.11).

This protocol got initially adopted on December 11th 1997 in Kyoto, Japan. The number of countries who have accepted and ratified the protocol has increased a lot over the years, and in 2011 the number has increased to 191 states. Other countries, including United States have not yet signed and ratified the ...