...Table of Contents Introduction to Copenhagen Conference and Kyoto Protocol 2 ASEAN and Copenhagen Conference 3 Climate Change as an Issue 4 Sustainable Development 5 Impact of Kyoto Protocol on ASEAN 7 Challenges faced by ASEAN under Kyoto Protocol 9 Conclusion 11 Referencing 12 Introduction to Copenhagen Conference and Kyoto Protocol In 1992, countries coupled together for an international treaty, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. However, by 1995, countries realized that provisions of emission reductions in the Convention were insufficient. Due to this reason, they launched negotiations to reinforce the global response to climate change. These negotiations lead to the adoption of an agreement known as Kyoto Protocol (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 2013). The Copenhagen Climate Change Conference held in Denmark raised climate change policy to the highest political level. 115 world leaders attended this high-level segment, building it one of the major gatherings of world leaders ever outside UN headquarters in New York. More than 40,000 people that represent governments, nongovernmental organizations, intergovernmental organizations, media, faith-based organizations UN agencies applied for accreditation (UNFCCC, 2013) The Copenhagen Accord enclosed numerous key elements on which there was strong union of the views of governments. This incorporated the long-term goal of limiting the maximum global average temperature...
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...The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement which is mainly linked to ‘the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)’ and thus it has set international State Parties to reduce green house emissions, based on premise that man-made carbon dioxide and global warming have caused it.It is thus a climate control protocol that controls the world’s economy and the power of the United Nations by ensuring that all the industrialized nations have submitted to restrictions on the production of carbon dioxide.`In essence its believed that it is the developed countries which are mainly responsible for the very high levels of the emissions due to the many years of industrial acivities that have been rampant in the countries. The Kyoto Protocol implemented the objectives of the UNFCCC, which was to fight global warming by reducing greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to a level that would prevent anthropogenic interference with climate system. Climatic Change Convention is not all about pollution abatement and conversation in usual sense of those terms but it is mainly about the transformation which in essence brings about greater efficiency in the use of resources and also a greater equity in accessing them. It is not this convention on global environment; it is rather the convention on the sustainable development of the global economy and also the scientific community that has put it clear that we are in bq,/;l;’jle. This is a global issue that...
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...HIST1050-07 Kyoto Protocol Research Kyoto Agreement Environmental Issues Burdens on the atmosphere and on Earth's natural environment in general have been increasing at a steady rate over the years. Since the Industrial Revolution in the 1800s, humans have been slowly but steadily polluting the environment through the means of emission of greenhouse gases. After realizing this issue at hand, the United Nations set out to find where the majority of these emissions came from and ways to limit the damage to the environment. The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which sets international binding emission reduction targets. It was adopted in Kyoto, Japan (hence its name) on December 11, 1997 and began to be enforced on February 16, 2005. Some actions that are required by the binding of the Protocol are improving energy efficiency, reducing deforestation, and supporting renewable energy. It has been recognized that developed countries, such as the United States, and various European countries, are principally responsible for the current high levels of GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions in the atmosphere. The Protocol places a heavier burden on these developed nations under the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities". All of the United Nation members are parties to the Protocol except Andorra, Canada, South Sudan and the United States. The United States signed the Protocol but never...
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...1. Introduction: The 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP 21 or CMP 11 was held in Paris, France, from 30 November to 12 December 2015. It was the 21st yearly session of the Conference of the Parties to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the 11th session of the Meeting of the Parties to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. The conference reached its objective, to for the first time achieve a global agreement on reduction of greenhouse emission in the Paris Agreement, which was adopted with acclamation by nearly all states. The agreement will become legally binding if at least 55 countries that represent at least 55 percent of global greenhouse emissions become a party to it through signature followed by ratification, acceptance, approval or through accession in New York between 22 April 2016 to 21 April 2017. It is expected to take effect in 2020. According to the organizing committee, the expected key result was to limit the global warming, by 2100, compared to pre-industrial to below 2 degrees Celsius. The goal to limit temperature increase with 2 degrees was however supplemented in the adopted version of the Paris Agreement, with the statement that parties "pursue to" limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. A 1.5°C goal will require a zero level in emissions sometimes between 2030 and 2050 according to some scientists. However, no detailed time plan or country-specific goals for emissions were stated in the final...
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...violated the Global warming Pact called the “Kyoto Protocol”. “The view that human activities are likely responsible for most of the observed increase in global mean temperature ("global warming") since the mid-20th century is an accurate reflection of current scientific thinking. Human-induced warming of the climate is expected to continue throughout the 21st century and beyond.” The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is an international treaty that places necessary responsibility on industrialized countries to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. The UNFCCC is an environmental treaty with the goal of preventing "dangerous" anthropogenic (i.e., human-induced) interference of the climate system. According to the UNFCC website, the Protocol "recognises that developed countries are principally responsible for the current high levels of GHG emissions in the atmosphere as a result of more than 150 years of industrial activity, and places a heavier burden on developed nations under the principle of 'common but differentiated responsibilities'." There are 192 parties to the convention, including 191 states (all the UN members, except Andorra, Canada, South Sudan and the United States) and the European Union. The Protocol was adopted by Parties to the UNFCCC in 1997, and entered into force in 2005. Peter Kent, Canada’s Environment Minister announced that Canada will withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol. It was said that the decision will...
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...United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) or The Kyoto Protocol has become a universal agreement framed within. The fundamental goal of the treaty is to safeguard our environment out from the negative effects of global climate change and minimize the gas emissions, which in turn provoke the phenomenon referred to as global warming. Consequently, considering the direct human culpability from this environmental dilemma, this specific treaty attempts to engage countries throughout the globe to take action to protect against worldwide climate change. The Kyoto Protocol ensures legally binding obligations towards the decrease of four greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide or co2, methane, nitrous oxide, sulfur hexachloride), as well as two categories of emissions (hydrofluorocarbons and fluorocarbons) countries around the world which signed and ratified the protocol needs to execute between 2008 and 2012. Varieties of greenhouse-gas pollutants must decrease by approximately 5.2% from this time-period taking into account the gas pollution levels. However, bear in mind, this 5.2% reducing around the greenhouse emissions from 1990 is known as a world-wide percentage, and therefore, each country possesses his own discharge's percentages, which in turn be required to decrease. In conclusion, nevertheless, there truly an expanding commitment and pressure to participate a worldwide international deal in preserving...
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...Pros and cons of the Kyoto Protocol. Why or why not it should be followed. Global warming, in line with other significant factors that influence the existence of human beings, has now became a major topic in modern press, politics, scientific researches and even simple chats of why the last summer was that hot. And this is not odd. The latest research on climate change has a shown a trend of incremental growth of Earth’s average surface temperature during last 100 years, with a particular increase since 1980. While the research considers several facts to cause a problem, the most obvious one is a concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere produced as a result of increased usage of natural resources. To stabilize the level of gases, in 1997 the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has issued a document known as Kyoto Protocol, aimed at fighting global warming by setting a certain emission limit per country and followed by an overall objective to reduce the number of greenhouse gases produced by them. By now, the document has gone through multiple stages of adoption and ratifications and is about to expire by the end of 2012. While the overall purpose of the protocol is clear and acceptable, the way it declares certain mechanisms and triggers polarized reactions across the world causes to analyze if it worth to be followed. First of all, the Protocol does not actually cover the key emitters of greenhouse gases, which are either not committed for reductions...
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...Week 5 Global Warming C02 and You Bonita Jones-Bey 1. Is your emission higher than average US emission? By how much. See report 2. What steps will you be taking to reduce your emission? We currently use one vehicle more than the other one. The one with the better ass mileage of 38 mpg. 3. What needs to be done to increase sinks and reduce sources? Change in Uses of Land Increasing carbon storage by using land differently or maintaining carbon storage by avoiding land degradation. • Encouraging the transformation of cropland to forest. • Avoiding the conversion of forest land to settlements. Changes in Land Management Practices Improving management practices on existing land-use types. • Reducing soil erosion to minimize losses in soil carbon storage. • Planting after natural or human-induced forest disturbances to accelerate vegetation growth and minimize soil carbon losses. 4. How much has the amount of C02 in the atmosphere changed in the past? Ice cores have been collected from Antarctica and Greenland which contain information stored in the ice that can be used to reconstruct climates thousands of years ago. As snow accumulates on ice caps and ice sheets where temperatures usually remain below freezing year round, it lays down a record of the environmental conditions at the time of its formation. Over time the snow, buried under further accumulations, is compacted to ice, preserving the climatic information. Air bubbles trapped in the ice can be analyzed to reconstruct...
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...Beyond COP21: What does Paris mean for future climate change policy A response paper highlighting the future issues of major environmental disasters and the backdrop of what the future looks like. ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Sushrut S. Vaidya (20155042) Introduction: The changes caused by the terror of the human realm revealed itself to the world at the COP21 (21st Conference Of the Parties), known otherwise as the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference that was held from the 30th of November to the 11th of December 2015. Although people’s awareness of climate change and perceptions about its effects vary at the regional and national levels, the overall change patterns illustrate how climate change is truly a global issue. The issues discussed during the conference were related to what the Earth faced because of climate changes, the result of which was the regulation of global temperatures upto 2 degrees Celsius as compared to those of pre-industrial levels. All the 196 parties that attended the conference signed the Paris Agreement, the document responsible for the regulatory measures, for the very first time. It was with the highest concern that the motion for a global change was put forth. History of COP and the start of the concern towards climate change: The history of global concern towards climate changes dates back to the late 60’s and early 70’s. In response to growing...
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...and record-breaking temperatures has resulted in an amplified concern in the changing climate. “Certainly, this is no coincidence; extreme circumstances often serve to galvanize public attention.” These rising trends of environmental awareness have superseded individual societies. Resultantly, there have been countless efforts of working towards pragmatic solutions to environmental concerns by means of global governance as an international collective. “The distinct characteristics of global governance lies in the assumption that the effective handling of problems is no longer the exclusive responsibility of government but of joint activities by governments, international and supranational institutions.” This understanding of global interconnectedness has incited the creation of numerous organizations, institutions and international environmental initiatives, specifically the Kyoto Protocol. However, environmental impediments have not seen notable improvements and can be attributed to the flaws of global environmental governance. Firstly, contributing to the failure of environmental policies is the ineffective structure of the Kyoto Protocol. Furthermore, with the rise of globalization, neoliberal ideals have prioritized market successes at the detriment of the environment and international environmental initiatives. Lastly, the international environmental governing body of the United Nations Environment Programme (herein referred to as UNEP) lacks legitimacy, organization and...
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...against global climate change. Like all other things, global climate change also got a strong basis of global agenda in international relations specificly in 1972. Since then international relations and global climate change have become very intimate to one another to be discussed. By 1972 and having a remarkable benchmark in 1992, global environment as well as global climate change is being practiced almost with every aspect of international relations which include state, non-state actors, domestic international relationship, various political approach, several global accord, security and world trade as well. In this paper, we will try to find out the intensity of the intimacy between international relations and global climate change through several different approaches. In the beginning of the paper we will survey on the theories of international relations through which both international relations and global climate change can be explained then the discussion will be shifted to the role of state and non state actors on climate change, which will be pursued to the effect of climate change on human activities and the history of global climate change co-operation. Then we will move to an analysis of the global climate change regime through the several grand theories of international relations. Having theoretical analysis the paper will look forward to the domestic-international relationship on the global climate change negotiation and the political approach to climate...
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...The weather is changing and the scientists discovered that the climate is changing too. The climate is the average weather over a period of time. Climate will not stop changing if the factors that impact on are happening. The climate change is defined as one of the environmental problem. The climate is change in the global level by the number of heat which enter to the system or the number of the heat which comes out of the system. The climate change will happen if the factors that change the amount of the heat or the energy that enter or comes out happened. There are many indicators which prove the climate change and which we know through that the climate change is happening. Noticed increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, snow and ice melt, and the rising of the sea level. Responses to climate change come from planet and animals throughout observing the warmth and the natural and managed environment. Climate change is made by human activities and the nature. The warming that happening know is caused by the human activity like; fossil fuels burning process and the transformation for forestry and agriculture land. The human influence on the climate system have increased significantly and started while the industrial revolution time. Carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, is the command product of fossil fuel calcinations. Since the industrial revolution the overall effect of human activities was a warming effect. This effect was due to the release of carbon dioxide...
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...selling environmental services of greenhouse gases (GHG) from our earth’s atmosphere which is done by eco consulting firms around the world. This trade is done with carbon credits with one credit being equal to one ton of carbon. “This idea is to reduce the amount of carbon an industrial or commercial company processes lowering their overall emissions or carbon footprint.” (Souchik, 2012 This form of trading is a global process where individuals, industries, and countries all over the world share in the fair market trade of carbon. As nations and society progresses in technology and industrial advances we produce more carbon polluting gases that are negatively affecting the earth’s atmosphere. With carbon being the driving force in polluting gases and what to be said as the main cause for global warming, this is where companies felt they could make an impact in the world and also an impact in their pockets. “The main reason for climate change is the increase in greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions cause by anthropogenic activities (IPCC, 2007).” (Smyth, 2013) Greenhouse gases are commonly known as carbon dioxide. This comes from the burning off of fuels. Then from the carbon that is emitted from burning fuels is what harms our earth’s atmosphere causing the scare for global warming. The use of coal, and natural gases where carbon is stored and the clearance of large masses of land has sky-rocketed the amount of greenhouse gases emitted in the last century. With organizations...
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...3032 words 1. Introduction: Climate change is the most critical international humanitarian crisis today; it is adversely affecting our health, economy, national security and communities in a myriad of ways. Scientists have constantly been warning us that if we do not aggressively restrain climate change and control its effects now, the results will indisputably be devastating. They have also predicted that critical climate change effects such as long-term droughts and significant sea-level rise are inevitable although global efforts to decrease greenhouse gas emissions are being implemented. Hazardous impacts such melting icecaps in the Polar regions, heavy rainfall and disastrous storms, and growing variability of temperature in almost all regions of the world are being felt. In 1992, many countries collectively came up with an international treaty, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to consider what should be done to regulate average global temperature increases and the subsequent climate change process, and to tackle whatever impacts were, by then, unavoidable. By 1995, countries recognised that emission reductions provisions in the Convention were insufficient. Two years later Kyoto Protocol was adopted to strengthen the global response to climate change. This protocol legally binds developed countries to emission reduction targets. One paramount principle found in the UNFCCC and in the Kyoto Protocol is the “common but differentiated...
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...from the UNFCCC Climate Change Negotiations (COP) Tarafder Md. Arifur Rahman Senior Research Associate Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad BACKGROUND The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or FCCC) is an international environmental treaty negotiated at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), informally known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June 1992. The objective of the treaty is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system- commonly believed to be around 2°C above the pre-industrial global average temperature. The UNFCCC was opened for signature on May 9, 1992 after an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee produced the text of the Framework Convention as a report following its meeting in New York. Countries who sign up to the UNFCCC are known as ‘Parties’. As of March 2014, UNFCCC has 196 parties. Since the UNFCCC entered into force, the parties have been meeting annually in Conferences of the Parties (COP) to assess progress in dealing with climate change. The parties to the convention have met annually from 1995 in COP to assess progress in dealing with climate change. From 2005 the Conferences have also served as the Meetings of Parties of the Kyoto Protocol (MOP). Also parties to the Convention that are not parties to the Protocol can participate in Protocol-related meetings...
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