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6a. Summary of Climate Negotiations History

On December 11, 1997, over 150 nations adopted the Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This unprecedented agreement commits industrialized nations to place legally binding limits on their emissions of the six man-made greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluocarbons (HFCS), perfluorocarbons (PFCS) and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6). Also agreed upon was a system of emissions trading, by which nations with binding limits could buy and sell the right to release greenhouse gases, as well as a method by which these countries could finance certain carbon-savings projects in developing countries, for emission credits. But what led up to this historic moment?

In 1988, the governments of the world appointed the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), consisting of over 2000 leading scientists from around the world, to assess the science and economics of climate change. In 1990, the IPCC published a report concluding that human-made greenhouse gas emissions "will enhance the greenhouse effect, resulting on average in an additional warming of the Earth's surface" by the next century, with continued increases thereafter, unless concerted measures were adopted to limit the emissions of these gases. (For more on the IPCC, see 1200 Words or Less.)

Five years ago, at the Earth Summit in Rio, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was adopted. The treaty required each nation to limit its emissions of greenhouse gases to prevent "dangerous anthropogenic interference" with the climate, and to inventory and report its emissions. The treaty also set forth the principle that industrialized countries would take the first step in controlling global warming by voluntarily returning their emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000. These voluntary measures have not been effective, and many nations, especially the United States, are presently emitting more greenhouse gases than before.

Since Rio, there have been several follow-up negotiations, including a session in Berlin in 1995, where it was agreed that the voluntary approach had not been successful, and that industrialized countries would have to "take the lead" and adopt stronger measures to reduce their emissions, since they presently emit the lionŐs share of greenhouse gases, though what these measures would be were not clearly specified.

In July, 1996, then-Assistant Secretary of State Timothy Wirth announced in Geneva that the US would support legally binding targets and timetables to reduce greenhouse gases, and challenged other industrialized nations to do the same. Over 100 countries agreed they would develop such targets.

Negotiators met again, in March 1997, in Bonn, Germany. This time the Europeans took the lead by offering specific targets, proposing that industrialized nations should be required to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases by 15% from 1990 levels by the year 2010. The U.S. government put on the table a proposed system of international trading in emissions rights, projected to significantly reduce the costs of reductions. At the same meeting, Bert Bolin, scientist and at that time chairman of the IPCC, gave a presentation that showed that reductions undertaken solely by industrialized countries would most likely not be sufficient to limit warming to environmentally sustainable levels, unless developing countries began soon to reduce their increasing rates of emissions as well.

Nevertheless, even after the treaty was signed at Kyoto, many developing countries remain adamant against agreeing to cap their own emissions, since on a per capita basis, they still release far lower amounts of these gases compared to the industrialized nations. Whether they will accept any such restrictions at the next round of negotiations, due to take place in Buenos Aires in November 1998, remains unresolved. Meanwhile, the US Senate is expected to postpone ratification of the climate treaty without the developing nationsŐ assent to binding restrictions, on the ostensible grounds that if enforced, the agreement will lead to the flight of many energy-intensive domestic industries to these countries.

NEGOTIATION WEBSITES

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) offers important information about the climate treaty.

All the official U.N. negotiating documents are on file at the official website of the Climate Change Secretariat, including a timetable of the official negotiations and international meetings on which are set to climax in Kyoto, Japan in December of 1997; and a country-by-country account of what the signatories to the climate agreement have already done to combat global warming.

To follow the details of past negotiations, try back issues of The Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) an independent reporting service that provides coverage of official UN environmental negotiations, published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).

For a glimpse of what is actually happening while the sessions are taking place, be sure to check out the highly entertaining and irreverent ECO, the Climate Action Network newsletter, published daily during major meetings of the climate negotiations.

 

More on Climate:
Table of Contents | Twelve Hundred Words or Less... | Web Resources
Activist Groups | Voices | New in the Literature | Hotspots
History of Climate Negotiations | Glossary of Negotiator Terms | On the Other Hand...
Policy Options | Technological Breakthroughs? | Want to Get Involved?
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