UNFCCC

UNFCCC/KYOTO PROTOCOLS COMMENTS/ARGUMENTS BEFORE DURBAN MEETING IN NOVEMBER, 2011 As delegates gather in South Africa to plot the next big push against climate change, Western governments are saying it’s time to move beyond traditional distinctions between industrial and developing countries and get China and other growing economies to accept legally binding curbs on greenhouse gases. More than 100 countries representatives are attending the meeting . The immediate focus is the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 agreement requiring 37 industrialized countries to slash carbon emissions to 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. Each country has a binding target and faces penalties for falling short. The U.S., then and now the world’s largest polluter per capita, refused to join Kyoto because it imposed no obligations on countries like China, which has since surpassed the U.S. in overall emissions. Now, with the Kyoto pact’s expiry date looming, poor countries want the signatories to accept further reductions in a second commitment period up to at least 2017. “The Kyoto Protocol is a cornerstone of the climate change regime,” and a second commitment period “is the central priority for Durban,” says Jorge Arguello of Argentina, the chairman of the developing countries’ negotiating bloc known as G77 plus China. 🡪The European Union is bringing a proposal to Durban calling for a timetable for everyone to make these commitments by 2015. 🡪Separately, Norway and Australia set out a six-page proposal for all governments to adopt a phased process of scaling down emissions. 🡪Japan, Canada and Russia, three key countries in the Kyoto deal, announced last year they will not sign up to a second commitment period. Russia has submitted a proposal calling for a review and periodic amendments to the criteria for being judged rich or poor under Kyoto’s legal prescriptions. 🡪The division of the globe into two unequal parts was embedded in the first climate convention adopted in 1992. At that time China was struggling to liberalize its economy, India was just opening its borders to international commerce, South Africa was breaking out of the apartheid era, and Brazil the host of the Earth Summit where the convention was adopted was an economic shambles with inflation topping 1,100 percent that year. 🡪Everyone agrees that the few wealthy nations have the primary responsibility for reducing carbon emissions, since it was their industries that pumped carbon dioxide into the atmosphere for 200 years. Climate scientists say the accumulation of CO2 traps the Earth’s heat, is already changing some weather patterns and agricultural conditions, and is heightening risks of devastating sea level rise. 🡪The industrial countries the U.S. chief among them have long questioned whether those definitions of rich and poor, drawn up 20 years ago, should still apply. That was one reason why the U.S. backed out of the Kyoto Protocol. 🡪The EU is responsible for just 11 percent of global emissions, says the EU’s Hedegaard, and it can’t solve global warming without the help of those emitting the other 89 percent. 🡪Despite their swelling national bank accounts, China, India, South Africa and others say they are still battling poverty and that tens of millions of their people lack electricity or running water. 🡪It is a world leader in producing wind and solar energy and has closed thousands of outdated and heavily polluting power plants, replacing many with cleaner-burning coal plants. Its fuel efficiency standard already surpasses the 35 miles per gallon (14.7 kilometres per litre) for passenger cars that the U.S. government hopes to reach in 2016. Questions: 1.Where Climate Change Meeting will be conducted in November, 2011? Ans: ______________________________________ 2. How many countries participate? Ans: ____________________________________________________________________ 3. Which country has not signed the Kyoto Protocol? Ans: ______________________________________________________ 4. As per the 1997 Kyoto agreement how many countries are required to slash carbon emissions to 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. ? Ans : _______________________ 5. First Climate convention was adopted in which year? And in which country? Ans: _________ ___________ Rio De Janerio 6. G-77 and China are known as ________________________________ in the Climate Change meeting 7. Which countries do not want to sign 2nd reduction treaty ?Ans : _______________________________ 8. “Few wealthy nations have the primary responsibility for reducing carbon emissions”. Is one of the strong arguments. 9. Accumulation of which gas traps the Earth’s heat, and it is already changing some weather patterns and agricultural conditions, and is heightening risks of devastating sea level rise ? Ans : _____________________________ 10. What is the reason for the U.S. backed out of the Kyoto Protocol ? Ans: Whether the definitions of rich countries and poor countries , drawn up 20 years ago, should still apply