Environment

Bonn to bust

Kyoto Protocol's future uncertain after the stalemate in Germany

Aditya Ghosh

The only global treaty that legally binds rich countries to cut greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions may not get a new lease of life, after all. That’s what the latest climate negotiations at Bonn point at. Delegates from 194 countries met in June in the German city for climate change talks, which included discussions on the future of Kyoto Protocol, accounting loopholes in calculation of emissions and the need to undertake ambitious emission cuts.



After two weeks of negotiations ending June 17, the rift between developing and developed countries over the Kyoto Protocol deepened.

Adopted in 1997 and implemented in 2005, the Protocol is a cornerstone of the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It commits to reduce GHGs by five per cent below 1990 emissions levels by 2008-2012 to keep global temperature below 2°C by 2020. Scientists say increase beyond this may lead to a tipping point in the atmosphere, causing irreversible and catastrophic damage. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates 30 to 40 per cent emissions reduction below 1990 levels is required to contain the rising temperature.

What’s more
 
Black carbon was another topic that was discussed at Bonn. A report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and World Meteor ological Organisation, released during the climate talks, indicates that controlling black carbon from soot and smog would help arrest global temperature increase.

But arresting black carbon alone would not check global warming, the report adds. It has to be applied in conjunction with measures of mitigating CO2 emissions. “They have to be complementary processes to yield the benefits and not run in isolation,” says Johan Kuylenstierna, director of Stockholm Environment Institute and lead author of the study.

Adds UNEP’s chief scientist Joseph Alcamo, “We have not found a silver bullet. What we have found is a strategy for a very powerful complement needed for CO2 reduction.”
 
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