What is the Kyoto Protocol?
With the federal election coming up, there’s been some talk about the Kyoto Protocol, and whether or not we should sign it. You can see who’s for and against Kyoto at the ACF’s election score-card, and read all about the disagreements between leaders and their environment ministers in the news. But what is the Kyoto Protocol, and why is it such an issue for Australia?
The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement where countries agree to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, on average by about 5%. Countries can trade any extra reductions with other places that haven’t done so well. Helping renewable energy projects in developing nations count towards their goals as well. There are two groups of countries: Annex I, the developed nations who accept reduction targets and report on them every year; and Non-Annex 1, the developing nations who don’t have to reduce their GHG emissions, but can join in the Clean Development Mechanism and get some renewable energy. So far, 175 nations have signed up.
It was negotiated in 1997, when Australia got a sweet deal which allowed us to increase our emissions by 8% instead of reducing them. But then we didn’t sign up after all, and neither did the USA. The agreement needed 55 developed nations to join to make it worthwhile, and they were a couple short. Finally Russia signed on in 2004, which made enough countries for everyone to get going.
Australia and the USA are still the only developed nations in the world who haven’t signed up to Kyoto. Some people say we shouldn’t join in, because developing nations like China and India don’t have to commit to any reductions in their emissions. As their populations increase and their lifestyles become more like ours, they’ll end up needing to produce lots of energy and make lots of consumer goods, and that will create a lot of GHG emissions. I think this reason is a cop-out, because climate change is caused by the pollution that countries like us made during the 20 century: it’s like saying “Well, we made a mess, but we won’t start cleaning up until you do, because you might make a mess later on.”
The other main reason given for not signing is that joining in on Kyoto will cost too much money, or reduce employment. This is a cop-out too: not only are there investment opportunities for Kyoto partners, there are employment opportunities in new areas like renewable energy and forest management; and (as pointed out in the Stern review) it would take less than 1% of GDP per year to reduce GHG emissions to an acceptable level, if we start now. If you wait too long, it ends up losing you between 5% to 20% of GDP per year, and even now some Kyoto countries like France are talking about restricting business with non-Kyoto countries, which loses us more opportunities and money. Speaking economically as well as environmentally, it’s stupid not to join in the only international agreement in place to help fix this global problem.
Climate change isn’t going away - we can sit on the sidelines and moan about how hard it all is, or we can join in with the rest of the gang and help fix it. I know I’d rather be helping. How about you?
November 2nd, 2007 at 8:37 am
People like John Howard occasionally trundle out the ‘kyoto doesnt go far enough to make a difference’ argument as a reason not to sign and goes on to propose various new agreements / protocols. Newsflash Johnny. Starting again from scratch convincing those that have already joined to come to your party instead isn’t going to happen (at least not anytime soon). Far better to join a slightly flawed agreement and work on progressing the targets than try to start from scratch.
November 2nd, 2007 at 8:52 am
Apparently not-doing-enough with Kyoto is too much effort for him. And the Asia-Pacific 6 agreement was meant to be an alternative to Kyoto, but look what happened there: nothing. I think his actions speak louder than his words.
Kyoto is a long way from being perfect, but it’s what’s on offer - I’d like to join in and improve it, rather than sit on the sidelines heckling anyone who even tries to do the right thing.