Ronald L. Haldy, P.C., lawyers in Flint, MI, Michigan

The Kyoto Protocol

In 1992, the United Nations held a convention of unprecedented scope in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, called the Convention on Environment and Development, which came to be called the Earth Summit. One of the treaties signed at the convention was the Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC), under which ratifying countries were to voluntarily reduce their emissions of carbon dioxide, which was widely suspected of causing global warming and eventual disastrous environmental consequences. In addition, developed countries were to provide financial support to assist developing countries to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions.

In 1997, 170 countries met in Kyoto, Japan, to negotiate an extension of the FCCC that would impose mandatory reductions in carbon dioxide emissions. Negotiations stalled over the relative amount of reductions each country would be responsible for. The United States particularly objected to the exemption of developing countries from any mandatory emissions reductions. The World Bank called on industrialized countries to take the lead in the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions and reduce expectations that developing countries would be able to make immediate large-scale contributions. Developing countries readily adopted that argument, pointing out that the vast majority of the carbon dioxide emissions problem had been created by industrialized countries and that they should be responsible for cleaning up the mess.

Also adding to the impasse was the United States' proposal to reduce emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2012, whereas the European Union was proposing a 15 percent reduction below 1990 levels. In addition, the United States insisted on emissions trading, whereby United States companies could purchase credit for the emissions reductions of other countries in lieu of reducing admissions themselves. The World Bank suggested a similar plan under which industrialized countries would pay into a fund to assist developing countries achieve emissions reductions, for which the funding countries could share credit.

In the end, a compromise was worked out by which Japan was to reduce emissions by six percent, the United States by 7 percent, and the European Union by 8 percent. Other industrialized countries, with a few exceptions, were required to reduce their emissions within a similar range. The plan under which the emissions reductions were to carried out was called the Kyoto Protocol. Under its terms, it goes into force 90 days after 55 of the industrialized signatory countries ("Annex I parties") that accounted for at least 55 percent of the total 1990 carbon dioxide emissions from that group had ratified the treaty. As of 2004, the Kyoto Protocol had 84 signatories, 32 of which were Annex I countries making up 44.2 percent of the total 1990 carbon dioxide emissions of all Annex I countries.

The United States signed the Kyoto Protocol in November of 1998, but President Clinton never submitted it to the Senate for ratification because it was clear that it would not be passed. President Bush opposed the Kyoto Protocol altogether, citing the unfairness of exempting developing countries and predicting serious harm to the American economy caused by the reduction in energy consumption necessary to meet is commitments to carbon dioxide emissions reductions under the Kyoto Protocol. The Bush administration has also expressed doubts as to the validity of the science underlying the call to reduce global carbon dioxide emissions in order to arrest global warming. As of yet, the Kyoto Protocol is not in force; however, some countries continue to consider ratifying it, and it is conceivable that sufficient Annex I countries may eventually accept the agreement to place it in force.