Climate Change: The Kyoto Protocol and International Actions

Publication Date: June 2007

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Environment

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Abstract:

The first treaty to address climate change, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), was completed and opened for signature in 1992. This treaty includes commitments to establish national action plans for voluntary measures that could reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels in order to begin mitigating possible global warming. The United States was one of the first nations to sign and ratify this treaty, and it entered into force in 1994.

However, it was soon concluded by parties to the treaty that mandatory reductions in the six major greenhouse gases (of which carbon dioxide, mainly from burning of fossil fuels, is the most prevalent) would be required. The resulting Kyoto Protocol, which was completed in 1997 and entered into force in February 2005, committed industrialized nations that ratify it to specified, legally binding reductions in emissions of the six major greenhouse gases.

The United States has not ratified the Protocol, and thus is not bound by its provisions. One provision of the Protocol that has attracted particular interest among business interests in nations that are parties to it is for "emissions trading" and other "flexibility" mechanisms in which nations can contribute to meeting their reductions by purchasing "credits" from other countries that have reduced their emissions beyond their requirements. The United States signed the Protocol in late 1998, but President Clinton did not submit the Protocol to the Senate for approval because conditions outlined by S.Res. 98, passed in mid-1997 -- including meaningful participation by developing countries in binding commitments limiting greenhouse gases -- had not been met. In March 2001, the Bush Administration rejected the Kyoto Protocol, and subsequently announced a U.S. policy for climate change that relies on voluntary actions to reduce the "greenhouse gas intensity" (ratio of emissions to economic output) of the U.S. economy by 18% over the next 10 years.

Each of the industrialized nations listed in Annex B of the Kyoto Protocol has a specified emissions target. Overall, the collective commitments are to reduce the Parties' emissions by at least 5% below their 1990 levels, averaged over the "commitment period" 2008 to 2012. On a "parallel track" of activities, the United States took an initiative in 2005, the Asia-Pacific Partnership for Clean Development and Climate, together with China, India, Japan, Australia, and South Korea, which is a voluntary effort (though without specific targets) to reduce the greenhouse gas intensity of their economies through technology cooperation.

As of December 2006, the UNFCCC Secretariat reported that 168 nations and the European Union have ratified or accepted the Kyoto Protocol. Annual meetings of the parties continue, and attention during the negotiations has turned in large part to "next steps" following the end of the commitment period in 2012, as well as a review of the effectiveness of the Protocol. Major challenges remain to find agreement on the nature of commitments, if any, that would prove acceptable to all major players: current parties, developing countries that are major emitters, and the United States.