Introduction
Global climate change, which is being driven by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissionsaround the world, is largely “attributable to human activities.” Increasing temperatures haveraised global sea levels; decreased the extent and thinned the thickness of Arctic sea-ice; forcedthe widespread retreat of non-polar glaciers; decreased global snow cover; thawed and degradedthe permafrost in many regions; intensified El Niño events; shifted plant and animal ranges;extended the spring and fall seasons; increased coral reef bleaching; and increased economiclosses globally.
These changes are forecasted to accelerate and worsen in the 21st century, with a potential economic cost of $20 trillion per year by the year 2100.
In 1992, an international effort began in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with the signing of theU.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, a long-term aim to stabilize GHGconcentrations in the atmosphere “at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenicinterference with the climate system.” In 1997, a multi-national plan called the Kyoto Protocolcame into negotiation. The protocol called for a binding target to reduce emissions by 5.2% below 1990 levels by 2012 in participating industrialized countries. One hundred nations ratifiedthe protocol, and on February 16, 2005 the Protocol came into effect.
The United States, under the Bush administration, decided not to ratify the KyotoProtocol and adopted a voluntary program to reduce America’s greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity.It claimed that this strategy would be more beneficial because reductions would occur withoutdamaging the nation’s economy. Alternatively, the European Union adopted a mandatory GHGreduction scheme, called the Emissions Trading Scheme, creating a market between twenty-fivedeveloped and developing countries with the hope of reducing GHG emissions and spurringeconomic activity.
The U.S. Voluntary Approach
OverviewIn 2001, the United States decided not to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, an internationalagreement to reduce GHG emissions, on the basis that it would affect its economy.
Avoiding
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Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
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Ackerman, Frank, and Stanton, Elizabeth.
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Pew Center on Global Climate Change.
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White House.
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