15 Years After Kyoto Entered Into Force, Global Climate Action A Failure By Any Objective Standard

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On Sunday, 15 years will have passed since the Kyoto Protocol was ratified on February 16, 2005, which was eight years after it was negotiated back in 1997. Progress stalled because of a failure to achieve the quota of countries required to implement the protocol. The stalemate was finally broken when Russia signed up to the deal: once Russia joined, countries committed to Kyoto produced 55 percent or more of global emissions between them.

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However, by all objective measurements, it has been deemed to have failed. Emissions continue to rise, breaking records (again) in 2019, while the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere reached 416 parts per million (ppm) for the first time in recorded history on Monday. Current temperatures are at least 1℃ above pre-industrial levels and according to recent projections, we are on course to exceed warming of 4℃ by the end of the century.

What’s more, the Doha Amendment, which was added to the protocol in 2012, has yet to come into force. The intention was to set out a new commitment phase between 1 January 2013 and 31 December 2020 but it never received the 144 out of 192 acceptances required from the parties signed up to Kyoto.

One of the greatest stumbling blocks from the start was the failure of the U.S. to commit—and which occurred for a second time with the Paris Agreement. While the U.S. has typically taken a leading role in international initiatives, there appears to be a strong reluctance to do so in climate-related matters. Just as President Donald Trump took the U.S. out of Paris in 2017, former-President George Bush took the U.S. out of Kyoto in 2001. “If the U.S. had been in from the start, it would have been a different trajectory altogether,” Michael Lazarus, a Senior Scientist and director of the Stockholm Environment Institute’s U.S. Center, told Newsweek. “There would have been a sense that we were all acting together.”


Residents look on as flames burn through bush in Lake Tabourie, Australia, on 4 January 2020. Photo: Brett Hemmings / Getty Images

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https://desdemonadespair.net/2020/02/15-years-after-the-kyoto-protocol-went-into-force-the-climate-crisis-is-worse-than-ever-if-the-u-s-had-been-in-from-the-start-it-would-have-been-a-different-trajectory-altogether.html