EVSC 305 The South & Kyoto

1. EVSC 305The South & Kyoto New readings… Research paper assignment…

2. North - South • Asymmetry in impact • Different perspectives on urgency • What are the next steps for the global climate regime, particularly in terms of a deeper inclusion of developing countries’ concerns and interests? • Where are we now? • Kyoto

3. Kyoto Protocol • The text was adopted unanimously in 1997; it entered into force on 16 February 2005. • mandatory targets on greenhouse-gas emissions for the world's leading economies which have accepted it • Commitments under the Protocol vary from nation to nation. • How to meet the binding targets? - flexibility in how countries may meet their targets

4. Mechanisms: emissions trading • The carbon market • Developing countries • Ethical objections: ‘pollution rights’ & equity • What is it? • Article 17: "The Conference of the Parties shall define the relevant principles, modalities, rules and guidelines, in particular for verification, reporting and accountability for emissions trading. The Parties included in Annex B may participate in emissions trading for the purposes of fulfilling the commitments under Article 3. Any such trading shall be supplemental to domestic actions for the purpose of meeting quantified emission limitation and reduction commitments under that article." • Article 3.10: "Any emission reduction units, or any part of an assigned amount, which a Party acquires from another Party in accordance with the provisions of Article 6 or of Article 17 shall be added to the assigned amount for the acquiring Party." • Article 3.11: "Any emission reduction units, or any part of an assigned amount, which a Party transfers to another Party in accordance with the provisions of Article 6 or of Article 17 shall be subtracted from the assigned amount for the transferring Party."

5. Mechanisms: clean development • The Kyoto Protocol does not set limits on the greenhouse-gas emissions of developing nations. • Protocol allows for reductions to be "sponsored" in countries not bound by emissions targets Mechanisms: joint implementation • Protocol allows industrialized countries to meet part of their required cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions by paying for projects that reduce emissions in other industrialized countries

6. Achievements of Kyoto protocol? • No demonstrable reductions in emissions • No demonstrable reductions in anticipated emissions growth • No real assistance for societies to adapt to existing climate change • Kyoto and developing countries…

7. Concerns of developing countries/ Southern Concerns • Inter- and intra-generational equity and responsibility • Priority to the vulnerable communities • Long-term challenge of stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations

8. Southern Interests • Clear framework for stabilization • Building communities’ capacities • Sustainable development as a central goal (see GEO 4)

9. The Two-Degree Line (3.6 F) • “this far, and no further” • Impacts…. • … no national average. (divided by $) • … no international average (divided by geography) • 7 meter rise of sea level … • Positive feedback loops • By what time period?

10. The 2ºC Crash Program, its Alternatives and its Odds

11. 550 ppm… Joe Romm, of http://climateprogress.org/blog and the book Hell and High Water, claims that, in reality, “there is no ‘550 ppm’ stabilization path because 550 would destroy the tundra, and take us to 700+ by 2100 and trigger yet more amplifying feedbacks that would spiral the system out of control. So we stabilize at or below 450, or ruin the planet for hundreds if not thousands of years.”

12. The ‘inconvenient truths’ • The urgency… • Economic inequity

13. The South’s Lost Opportunity