Kyoto Protocol – Extended by the UN, but only Covers 15% of Global Emissions

The Kyoto Protocol, adopted in 1997 and effective in 2005 was a bold pledge by nations around the world to curb greenhouse gas emissions.  191 countries signed and ratified the Treaty, the only notable exception being the United States.  This would earn the US the reputation of being a rogue nation.

Writing for Time Magazine in 2001, Tony Karon described the situation thusly:

The Clinton administration was never happy with the terms of Kyoto, but it kept its negotiators at the table to grind away at the original treaty. President [George W.] Bush gambled that withdrawing from the negotiations — that is, removing the indispensable polluter — would force the international community back to the drawing board to seek an agreement more favorable to the U.S.’s gas-guzzling economy. But summary withdrawal from a decade-old process and failure at the same time to advance any alternative was read by the Europeans as a lack of seriousness.

And so the United States remained one country—along with Afghanistan, Andorra and South Sudan.

So it was a broad coalition of like-minded dissenters.

In 2006, even China was calling on the US to join the agreement.

But then in 2011, Canada became the first country to jump ship, certainly drawing criticism, and blaming its exit on the deal’s  inability to deal with the world’s two largest polluters: the United States, and China.

Meanwhile, since joining the treaty managed to become the world’s largest overall polluter.

Under the treaty, only fully industrialized nations were legally bound to reduce carbon emissions, neatly allowing large developing nations such as India and China to sign and ratify the treaty while excusing them from actually having to abide by its restrictions.

This, argued many, was the treaty’s fatal flaw.

Considering this, it almost seems amazing that any countries signed it at all.

Now, nearly 200 countries have agreed to extend the agreement, though Russia and New Zealand have opted out—and Canada and the US are not reconsidering their positions.

Now, the treaty will effectively only cover the countries—all 200 of them—that produce about 15% of the world’s carbon emissions.

This is a paltry number, however symbolically powerful the number of participants may be.

Clearly this system is not working, and the exemptions for large developing nations (who are rising economically and producing ever greater amounts of carbon) will continue to keep Russia, Canada and the US out of any agreement that will limit their abilities to remain economically competitive.

Though China is now the world’s largest carbon emitter, the amount of carbon emissions per capita is still significantly smaller than that of the US, though it is equal with the European Union’s and is still growing rapidly.

World governments can sign as many treaties as they like, but without some way to capture that remaining 85% they might find it is not the best use of another precious resource—paper.