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Kyoto – a poor thing for global climate action, but it’s all we’ve got

the Kyoto protocol covers only 15 per cent of the world’s emissions. Basically we’re back to the European Union and Australia operating with binding targets. Take in Ukraine, Switzerland and Norway and it’s a grand tally of 35 countries out of nearly 200. The
US is still not on board. And fellow non-signatories India and China, with 37 per cent of humanity, are industrialising their way back to the dominance they held in the world economy two centuries ago……

The road to a living planet still passes through Kyoto
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/editorial/the-road-to-a-living-planet-still-passes-through-kyoto-20121216-2bhgo.html December 17, 2012 THE world won’t come to an end this Friday, despite the Mayans’ prognostications. Not only that, it will be reborn 11 days
later. Yes, on January 1, the second phase of the Kyoto protocol comes into force.

Kyoto is still the world’s only climate change treaty but, while only seven years old, it already looks a bit old hat…. Russia, Japan, Canada and New Zealand declined to agree to a second
commitment period under the protocol. Yes, even Japan doesn’t love Kyoto.

With that sort of reverse momentum, the latest talks on the treaty, in the Qatari capital Doha, ended on December 8 with little fanfare, certainly nothing to drown out the sighs of anyone worried about our planet. And worry is justified. A leaked draft of the next big global Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report shows it is now ”virtually certain” that human greenhouse gas emissions trap energy that warms the planet.

The draft expresses even more confidence than its 2007 report that changes being observed on the planet are historically ”significant, unusual or unprecedented”. The IPCC says it has a high level of confidence that average global temperatures will rise by one to 3.7 degrees by 2081-2100.
But the Kyoto protocol covers only 15 per cent of the world’s emissions. Basically we’re back to the European Union and Australia operating with binding targets. Take in Ukraine, Switzerland and Norway and it’s a grand tally of 35 countries out of nearly 200. The
US is still not on board. And fellow non-signatories India and China, with 37 per cent of humanity, are industrialising their way back to the dominance they held in the world economy two centuries ago……

But there are some good news stories from the latest Kyoto round. We have even been presented with the prospect that the big holdouts – including the US, China and India – could set themselves binding emissions targets in 2015 to come into force in 2020. Rich countries
have pledged $100 billion to help poor countries but that too was pushed out to 2020, an eternity when such ugly matters as money are concerned…..  http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/editorial/the-road-to-a-living-planet-still-passes-through-kyoto-20121216-2bhgo.html#ixzz2FLgw6yTn

December 17, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, climate change