Is The Kyoto Protocol An Adequate Environmental Agreement To Resolve The Climate Change Problem?

Abstract:     
The lack of understanding on how to handle the issue of global warming, which is embodied by the Kyoto Protocol, among the various nations of the world reached a point where environmental policy-makers saw a number of possible scenarios to global warming before the last meeting on Climate Change in July 2001 in Bonn:

1. Amendments to the Kyoto Protocol, by changing the current targets and timetable into a long-term view of the global warming issue.

2. The U.S. does not agree with the Kyoto Protocol. Therefore, it will not do anything about it in terms of its ratification.

3. A middle ground between the two previous options. The idea is the creation of a new mechanism where nations meet in international environmental fora and voluntarily exchange views with no legal commitments.

In order to move forward, we should stop thinking of the global warming issue only in a cost-benefit analysis and instead take more into account public health and safety requirements. Since the U.S. and EU representatives may well find themselves deadlocked again when they meet at the end of October 2001 in Morocco for the next climate change convention, the author would like to make some recommendations at the end of this article.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 12

Keywords: Kyoto Protocol, global warming, climate change, greenhouse gas emissions

JEL Classification: K32

Accepted Paper Series