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Name: Arianna Villavicencio

Ecology

Homework
What is the Kyoto Protocol?
The Kyoto Protocol is an amendment to the United Nations Framework Convention on
Climate Change (UNFCCC), an international treaty intended to bring countries together
to reduce global warming and to cope with the effects of temperature increases that
are unavoidable after 150 years of industrialization. The provisions of the Kyoto
Protocol are legally binding on the ratifying nations, and stronger than those of the
UNFCCC.
The Kyoto Protocol was negotiated in Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997. It was opened
for signature on March 16, 1998, and closed a year later. Under terms of the
agreement, the Kyoto Protocol would not take effect until 90 days after it was ratified
by at least 55 countries involved in the UNFCCC. Another condition was that ratifying
countries had to represent at least 55 percent of the worlds total carbon dioxide
emissions for 1990.
The first condition was met on May 23, 2002, when Iceland became the 55th country
to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. When Russia ratified the agreement in November 2004,
the second condition was satisfied, and the Kyoto Protocol entered into force on
February 16, 2005.
As a U.S. presidential candidate, George W. Bush promised to reduce carbon dioxide
emissions. Shortly after he took office in 2001, however, President Bush withdrew U.S.
support for the Kyoto Protocol and refused to submit it to Congress for ratification.
Countries that ratify the Kyoto Protocol agree to reduce emissions of six greenhouse
gases that contribute to global warming: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide,
sulfur hexafluoride, HFCs and PFCs. The countries are allowed to use emissions trading
to meet their obligations if they maintain or increase their greenhouse gas emissions.
Emissions trading allows nations that can easily meet their targets to sell credits to
those that cannot.
The Kyoto mechanisms
Under the Protocol, countries must meet their targets primarily through national
measures. However, the Protocol also offers them an additional means to meet their
targets by way of three market-based mechanisms.
The Kyoto mechanisms are:

International Emissions Trading


Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
Joint implementation (JI)

The mechanisms help to stimulate green investment and help Parties meet their
emission targets in a cost-effective way.
International Emissions Trading
Asia
Japan: emissions trading in Tokyo started in 2010. This scheme is run by the Tokyo
Metropolitan Government.
Europe
European Union: the European Union Emission Trading Scheme (EU ETS), which
started in 2005. This is run by the European Commission.
Norway: domestic emissions trading in Norway started in 2005. This was run by the
Norwegian Government, which is now a participant in the EU ETS.
Switzerland: the Swiss ETS, which runs from 2008 to 2012, to coincide with the Kyoto
Protocol's first commitment period.
United Kingdom:
The UK Emissions Trading Scheme, which ran from 200206. This was a scheme run by
the UK Government, which is now a participant in the EU ETS.
The UK CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, which started in 2010, and is run by the UK
Government.
North America
Canada: emissions trading in Alberta, Canada, which started in 2007. This is run by the
Government of Alberta.
United States:

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which started in 2009. This
scheme caps emissions from power generation in ten north-eastern U.S. states
(Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire,
New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont).
Emissions trading in California, which started in 2013.
The Western Climate Initiative (WCI), which is planned to start in 2012. This is a
collective ETS agreed between 11 U.S. states and Canadian provinces.

Oceania
Australia: the New South Wales Greenhouse Gas Reduction Scheme (NSW), which
started in 2003. This scheme is run by the Australian State of New South Wales, and
has now joined the Alfa Climate Stabilization (ACS).
New Zealand: the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme, which started in 2008.
Clean Development Mechanism

Between 2001, which was the first year Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
projects could be registered, and 2012, the end of the first Kyoto commitment period,
the CDM is expected to produce some 1.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent
(CO2e) in emission reductions. Most of these reductions are through renewable energy
commercialization, energy efficiency, and fuel switching. By 2012, the largest potential
for production of CERs are estimated in China (52% of total CERs) and India (16%). CERs
produced in Latin America and the Caribbean make up 15% of the potential total, with
Brazil as the largest producer in the region (7%).
Joint Implementation
The formal crediting period for Joint Implementation (JI) was aligned with the first
commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, and did not start until January 2008 (Carbon
Trust, 2009, p. 20). In November 2008, only 22 JI projects had been officially approved
and registered. The total projected emission savings from JI by 2012 are about one
tenth that of the CDM. Russia accounts for about two-thirds of these savings, with the
remainder divided up roughly equally between the Ukraine and the EU's New Member
States. Emission savings include cuts in methane, HFC, and N2O emissions.
Lowering Emissions Worldwide
The goal of the Kyoto Protocol is to reduce worldwide greenhouse gas emissions to 5.2
percent below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. Compared to the emissions levels
that would occur by 2010 without the Kyoto Protocol, however, this target actually
represents a 29 percent cut.
The Kyoto Protocol sets specific emissions reduction targets for each industrialized
nation, but excludes developing countries. To meet their targets, most ratifying nations
would have to combine several strategies:

place restrictions on their biggest polluters


manage transportation to slow or reduce emissions from automobiles
make better use of renewable energy sourcessuch as solar power, wind
power, and biodieselin place of fossil fuels

Current Status
Most of the worlds industrialized nations support the Kyoto Protocol. One notable
exception is the United States, which releases more greenhouse gases than any other
nation and accounts for more than 25 percent of those generated by humans
worldwide. Australia also declined.
United Nations Millennium Declaration
On 8 September 2000, following a three day Millennium Summit of world leaders at
the headquarters of the United Nations, the General Assembly adopted the
Millennium Declaration. A follow-up outcome of the resolution was passed by the
General Assembly on 14 December 2000 to guide its implementation. Progress on
implementation of the Declaration was reviewed at the 2005 World Summit of leaders.

The Millennium Declaration has eight chapters and key objectives, adopted by 189 world
leaders during the summit: The Declaration, after the Vienna Declaration and Programme of
Action, stresses the observance of international human rights law and international
humanitarian law under the Principles of United Nations Charter as well as the treaties on
sustainable development. The Declaration also urges observance of the Olympic truce
individually and collectively.
1.

2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Values and Principles


Freedom
Equality
Solidarity
Tolerance
Respect for nature - "Shown in the management of all living species and natural
resources, in accordance with the precepts of sustainable development."
Shared responsibility
Peace, Security and Disarmament
Development and Poverty Eradication
Protecting our Common Environment
Human Rights, Democracy and Good Governance
Protecting the Vulnerable
Meeting the Special Needs of Africa
Strengthening the United Nations

The world has made significant progress in achieving many of the Goals. Between 1990
and 2002 average overall incomes increased by approximately 21 percent. The number
of people in extreme poverty declined by an estimated 130 million 1. Child mortality
rates fell from 103 deaths per 1,000 live births a year to 88. Life expectancy rose from
63 years to nearly 65 years. An additional 8 percent of the developing world's people
received access to water. And an additional 15 percent acquired access to improved
sanitation services.
Sustainable Development Goals
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) refer to an agreement of the United Nations
Conference on Sustainable Development held in Rio de Janeiro in June 2012 (Rio+20),
to develop a set of future international development goals.
The UN General Assembly's Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals
on 19 July 2014 forwarded to the Assembly its proposal for a set of SGDs. The proposal
contains 17 goals with 169 targets covering a broad range of sustainable development
issues, including ending poverty and hunger, improving health and education, making
cities more sustainable, combating climate change, and protecting oceans and forests.
Background
At the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in June 2012,
the worlds governments agreed to develop a set of sustainable development goals
(SDGs). The SDG idea was first put forward by Columbia and Guatemala during the
Rio+20 preparatory process. It received widespread support at the Rio+20 conference

and is one of the conferences main outcomes. The Rio+20 outcome document did not
give a detailed explanation of the goals but stated that the SDGs should be limited in
number, aspirational and easy to communicate.
The goals aim to address and incorporate the economic, social and environmental
dimensions of sustainable development and their interlink ages in a balanced way. The
SDGs should be global in nature and applicable to all countries, developed and
developing alike, while taking into account different national realities and capacities.
This makes them different from the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which are
targeted at eradicating extreme poverty and related social ills in developing nations by
2015. The SDGs are supposed to incorporate those MDGs and related targets which
will not have been met by 2015, and be coherent with and integrated into the UN
development agenda beyond 2015.
Strong support for SDGs from the scientific community
The Rio+20 outcome document states that the OWG should develop modalities to
ensure the full involvement of relevant stakeholders, including the scientific
community and the UN system. In the first State of the Planet Declaration released
from the Planet under Pressure Conference in March 2012, the scientific community
strongly supported the proposal for Sustainable Development Goals, asserting that
The research community should be involved in the development of goals, targets and
indicators...
ICSU is working with the UN to make sure that scientific advice and expertise is
available to the OWG, predominantly through expert group meetings, papers on the
SDGs and through the work of the Scientific and Technological Community Major
Group.

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