Calling attention speech on Climate change
Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather over periods of time that range from decades to millions of years. Climate change is a contemporary issue characterized by two famous agreements, the first being the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change of 1992 and the much-debated Kyoto Protocol of 1997. In the light of the aforementioned it becomes especially important to discuss the Kyoto Protocol with reference to the Copenhagen meet that is to take place later this year.
Some say the Kyoto Protocol was doomed from the very beginning in the wake of there being too few ratifications, it finally came into force in 2005, eight years after it was drafted. Countries that ratified the protocol were expected to cut emissions from not only carbon dioxide but also methane, Nitrous oxide, Hydrofluorocarbons, Perfluorocarbons, Sulphur hexafluoride. If a country exceeds its limit, it was permitted to engage in what was called “emission trading” i.e. it would buy credits from those countries that were able to keep their own emissions below the maximum level. Though India and China ratified Kyoto they were exmpt from cutting emissions since they were developing countries. One of the major loopholes as perceived in Kyoto is that keeping the former in mind, China is expected to overtake the USA (one of the most developed countries in the world) in the number of emissions, but due to differences in population and industry the USA has effectively outsourced its credits to China and India. The difference between signing and ratification as per principles of international law also presents a conundrum in Kyoto, almost all countries in the world have signed Kyoto, but that is a mere symbolic gesture. It is ratification that imposes legal obligations and in itself is binding. Out of all countries in the world it is Australia and the United States who refuse to ratify Kyoto on grounds that it would impair their respective economies.
