Namibia - CountryWatch

Environmental Overview Global Environmental Concepts
Special Entry: The Kyoto Protocol
The UNFCCC was adopted at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992, and entered into force in 1994. Over 175
parties were official participants.
Meanwhile, however, many of the larger, more industrialized nations failed to reach the emissions'
reduction targets, and many UNFCCC members agreed that the voluntary approach to reducing emissions
had not been successful. As such, UNFCCC members reached a consensus that legally binding
limits were necessitated, and agreed to discuss such a legal paradigm at a meeting in Kyoto, Japan in
1997. At that meeting, the UNFCCC forged the Kyoto Protocol. This concord is the first legally binding
international agreement that places limits on emissions from industrialized countries. The major
greenhouse gas emissions addressed in the Kyoto Protocol include carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide,
hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, and methane.
The provisions of the Kyoto Protocol stipulate that economically advanced nations must reduce their
combined emissions of greenhouse gases, by approximately five percent from their 1990 levels, before
the 2008-2010 deadline. Countries with the highest carbon dioxide emissions, such as the United
States (U.S.), many of the European Union (EU) countries, and Japan, are to reduce emissions by a
scale of 6 to 8 percent. All economically advanced nations must show "demonstrable progress" by
2005. In contrast, no binding limits or timetable have been set on developing countries. Presumably,
this distinction is due to the fact that most developing countries -- with the obvious exceptions of India
and China -- simply do not emit as many greenhouse gases as do more industrially advanced countries.
Meanwhile, these countries are entrenched in the process of economic development.
Regardless of the aforementioned reasoning, there has been strong opposition against the asymmetrical
treatment assigned to emissions limits among developed and developing countries. Although this distinction
might be regarded as unfair in principle, associations such as the Alliance of Small Island
States have been vocal in expressing how global warming -- a result of greenhouse gas emissions - has
contributed to the rise in sea level, and thus deleteriously affected their very existence as island nation
states. For this reason, some parties have suggested that economically advanced nations, upon returning
to their 1990 levels, should be required to further reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by a deadline
of 2005. In response, interested parties have observed that even if such reductions were
undertaken by economically advanced nations, they would not be enough to completely control global
warming. Indeed, a reduction in the rate of fossil fuel usage by developing nations would also be necessary
to have substantial ameliorative effect on global warming. Indeed, a reduction in the rate of fossil
fuel usage by developing nations would also be necessary to have substantial ameliorative effect on
global warming.
As such, the Protocol established a "Clean Development Mechanism" which permits developed countries
to invest in projects aimed at reducing emissions within developing countries in return for credit
for the reductions. Ostensibly, the objective of this mechanism is to curtail emissions in developing
countries without unduly penalizing them for their economic development. Under this model, the
countries with more potential emissions credits could sell them to other signatories of the Kyoto Protocol,
whose emissions are forecast to significantly rise in the next few years. Should this trading of
emissions credits take place, it is estimated that the Kyoto Protocol's emissions targets could still be
met.
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