Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Effect Of Kyoto Protocol
Effect Of Kyoto Protocol
Kyoto protocol influence
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Effect Of Kyoto Protocol
Should Climate Change Laws be Reformed?
Climate change is a hot topic all around the world. Hundreds of thousands of articles, graphs, charts, and videos have been created about climate change, and thousands of people have voiced their opinions on it through speeches and social media. It has been such a prominent issue for a few decades now, and many different laws have been placed into effect to help prevent it’s disastrous effects. But are these laws effective, and should they be reformed? The rising temperatures and high CO2 levels in our atmosphere are more than enough evidence to prove that the current laws in place that are supposed to help fight climate change are ineffective and should be reformed.
Although there are laws already
…show more content…
The Kyoto Protocol is one of the laws the US has in place to help limit greenhouse gas emissions. But this law is not enforced well enough to make significant change. Countries who are forced to apply this protocol will just find loopholes that make the law pointless. James E. Hansen, a well known climate scientist, said, "So, for example, in the Kyoto Protocol, that was very ineffective. Even the countries that took on supposedly the strongest requirements, like Japan for example—if you look at its actual emissions, its actual fossil fuel use, you see that their CO2 emissions actually increased even though they were supposed to decrease. Because their coal use increased...we’ll realize 10 years later, oops, it really didn’t do much." Hansen has a very good point- the current laws are very easy to cheat. If Japan, one of the biggest GHG producers, can so easily go around the law, other countries can do so just as easily. Another example is the Paris Agreement. Recently, the US withdrew from the agreement. The US can do this easily, without any penalties, even though it is the second biggest provider of GHG in the world. “Since the agreement itself is non-binding, nothing would actually happen to the U.S. in terms of official consequences” (Zorthian, 2017) Because of this, any progress that has been made to help stop climate change is thrown away. Laws should be reformed so that all countries are required to help, even if only a little, to help the
The Kyoto Protocol is a binding international agreement, which began in Kyoto, Japan in 1997. As of June 2013, there were a total of 192 parties participating in the Kyoto Protocol, Canada was no longer one of them. Canada was one of the first to sign the agreement, in 1998; more than 4 years later, Canada formally approved the Kyoto Accord, in 2002 ("CBC.ca - Timeline: Canada and Kyoto"). This meant Canada would have to decrease its emissions, by 6% in comparison to 1990 levels (461 Mt), by the year 2012. Despite some efforts, Canada failed to meet these requirements and in fact increased total emissions by roughly 24% by the year 2008. Canada formally withdrew from the Kyoto Accord in 2011, avoiding penalties and future detriments ("CBC News in Depth: Kyoto"). The withdrawal of Canada from the Kyoto Protocol was a good decision, the decrease in emissions was an unattainable goal, considering the cost, time, unfairness, dependency and technological advancement.
The reason had everything to do with cost and benefit. The Protocols would require that the United States reduce its 2008 – 2012 overall greenhouse emissions by about a third of the current levels. The economic costs are quite significant and the benefits are not. Tom Wigley, a senior scientist at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research, calculated “saved” warming under the assumption that every nation met its obligation under the Kyoto Protocol. According to his calculations, the earth’s temperature in 2050 would be 0.07 ˚C lower as a result (Wigley). According to Patrick J. Michaels, a professor of environmental science at the University of Virginia, a warming of such an infinitesimal amount cannot accurately be measure on a thermometer. “The benefits of Kyoto are so miniscule as to ...
The Kyoto Protocol was an international agreement on climate change. It was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on December 11,1997. Kyoto Protocol is designed to help countries adapting to the harmful effects of climate change. Under the Protocol, countries must be monitored on their emission use. Germany keeps an international transaction log to make sure that transaction are logical with the rules of the Protocol. The decision was to save the government an estimated $14 billion in penalties. Environment minister Peter Kent argued that the Kyoto Protocol does not cover the world’s largest two emitters, the United States and China and that is why the Kyoto Protocol would not work. Withdrawing from the Kyoto Protocol and joining the UNFCCC was a big move by Canada. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is the key international forum for global efforts to address the challenges posed by climate change. Canada Joined the UNFCCC in 1992 along with other nations. The agreement came into force in 1994 and now has near universal membership with 194 other countries.
Ever since the advent of weather observation and prediction technology in the past 150 years, science has created a consensus that the earth is getting warmer, and that human influence is to blame. Some even blame this change, known as global warming, for bouts of extreme weather including cyclonic storms, droughts, wildfires, and heat waves. These scientists (and much of the public) believe that our influence is the problem, as our emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gasses, the product of the usage of our fuels, are polluting the atmosphere and trapping energy from the sun within. However, a minority group, scientists and public skeptics alike, believe this warming trend is merely a coincidence with the earth’s naturally cyclical climate, and that the activists are overstating something they know little about. Many even agree that if the prospect of our influence were to be true, the effects are not at all that bad, unlike what it is hyped to be. Thus, global warming has become a debatable theory. Much like legislation that prevents schools from teaching evolution as anything more than a theory, now there are also laws that mandate that global warming be considered debatable, and to argue both sides of it (Jonas).
At the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, many countries wished to have legally binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions to be included in the summit, but the United States of America refused to agree because it claimed that there were still scientific uncertainties regarding the need to take action in limiting gas emission. Besides, since limiting gas emissions will cutting energy consumption, it will give unacceptable economic impacts. Since the United States is one of the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, so it was very important that the United States signed the convention, where to ensure that the United States get on the board, the more progressive countries were forced to compromise their positions. So, as a result, the final treaty, known as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), only included the ambiguous and legally weak ‘aim’ that requiring the industrialized countries (listed in Annex I of the Convention) to cut down their greenhouse gas
Global Warming Blown Out of Proportion The United States by no means should consider complying with the Kyoto Protocols. My conviction in the negation towards passing this bill is that the whole Global Warming idea is highly blown out of proportion by politicians and the mass media. Global warming, as it may exist in the most gentle form, is the result of natural changes and could yield positive benefits. It is a predictable, quantifiable process.
My parents grew up in small town in Mexico. There was a little river that went through part of the town when they were growing up. Every weekend or so they would go out and would go swimming with their families, it almost became a tradition to go swimming there until they noticed that the river 's water level was becoming smaller and smaller. Today there is no river anymore, instead it 's a road that travels through the town. Every time I visit my family in Mexico it would alway be nice and warm up until this year when I went in December. I remember waking up and getting ready to go to my aunt 's house in clothes for warm weather. As I open the door, the cold air punch me and I saw snowflakes falling down. It 's not supposed to snow in that
Recently, the president of The United States, Donald Trump, has pulled the United States out of the Paris Agreement, a global plan to combat climate. The main goal of the Paris Agreement is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by lowering the increase in temperature through reducing carbon air emissions and providing participating countries with the ability to combat the effects of climate change. In fact, the United States is in the minority; 170 parties out of 197 parties have agreed to ratify the Paris Agreement. (unfccc.int) The United States should remain in the Paris Climate Agreement as its beneficial for the country to do so, as the majority of United States citizens support it, climate change is a serious issue that needs to be addressed, and because the Paris Agreement offers flexibility for countries while still addressing climate change.
Is global warming in America really a big deal? What can Americans do to reverse the increase in earth’s temperature? In the last 50 years, evidence of global warming in the United States has been on a sharp incline. In data taken from a graph in “Climate Change,” in 1950 the carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere was 320 parts per million. The graph shows further that this number had steadily grown to close to 400 parts per million. So what causes global warming? Global warming is caused by gases in the atmosphere, mostly carbon dioxide, trapping heat between the atmosphere and the surface, creating a greenhouse effect. Contrary to popular opinion, global warming is not something that just happens without any consequences. Consequences of
Changes need to be made and politicians unfortunately are who people rely on. They have power and can make the change. Scientist are the back bone behind them but the reality is politicians make the rules and laws. Stephen Hayward argues that Global Warming should be left to scientists but unfortunately that is not enough. Scientists do not have the media and following the Politian's do.
Over the past decade, as the evidence of climate change became clearer and better understood, a strong international movement for action has emerged. Climate change is a global challenge that does not respect national borders. Emissions anywhere affect people everywhere, therefore, it is an issue that requires solutions that need to be coordinated at the international level and it requires international cooperation to help developing countries move toward a low-carbon economy. The Kyoto Protocol is an important first step towards truly global emission reduction regime that will stabilize GHG emissions, and can provide the architecture for the future international agreement on climate change. International organizations, such as the Kyoto Protocol, truly proves that there will be a positive outcome to not only certain nations, but the global world.
Climate change. The two letter word so feared by scientists, so ignored by the average human being. What is it that makes scientists fear this phrase so much? For the concept of “climate change” has been seen throughout the history of the earths existence. For centuries, our climate has fluctuated through increasing and decreasing amounts of atmospheric carbon dioxide and climatic cycles. So what is the big deal? The problem, and the reason why this concept instills fear directly into the core of scientists is the rate at which over the past 1,300 years atmospheric carbon dioxide levels have risen. This unnatural increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide, due to the immense amount of anthropogenic burning of oil and coal, affects the transfer
When negotiations to address climate change failed in 2009, countries walked away with a better sense of how to make an agreement work. Using past failures as a guide helped launch a “bottoms up” approach in which each country set its own goals, enabling the Paris agreement to work for everyone — the best way to ensure change. The deal asks any nation signing it, of which there were 196, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to regularly increase their ambitions. The agreement requires that ratifying nations “peak” their greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible and pursue the highest possible ambition that each country can achieve.
...empts at doing our part. But what is really needed is change at national and global levels. Only by convincing leaders to create laws that improve our energy policy, and pushing companies to adopt sustainable business practices on a global level, can we see real change. (EDF - Environmental Defense Fund , 2015) We need laws, polices, and infringes…..etc. whatever it takes in order to get our CO2 emissions under control. There are plenty of ways to improve on the current state of global warming like limiting global warming pollution, utilizing renewable energy, drive smarter vehicles, or even drive less. However small the action any change in our normal day to day can still help tremendously especially when done by a large number of people. We have to remember that this is the only planet we have and global warming is a global issue that needs to be taken seriously.
Nowadays, we can see a lot of campaigns to reduce this humans’ contribution of greenhouse gases to atmosphere. These campaign’s missions are usually about reducing the energy that we use, convincing us to use recyclable energy, stopping the deforestation... These missions are all about mitigating to climate change. Climate change mitigation is the actions to limit the significant rate of long term climate change. In other words, climate change mitigation is all of the actions about lowering the humans’ greenhouse gas contribution to atmosphere. It is now too late for humans’ to prevent the effects of climate change, but these effects can be reduced in the future with mitigation. The most popular treaty, disenchant of humanity, is Kyoto Protocol. The main goal of Kyoto Protocol is reducing the human emitted greenhouse gases, in other word, mitigation. Also in ways that underlying national differences in GHG emissions, wealth, and capacity to make th...