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Doc. 9058
24 April 2001
Kyoto Protocol on climate change:
need for committed international solidarity
Report
Committee on the Environment and Agriculture
Rapporteur: Mr Wolfgang Behrendt, Germany, Socialist Group
Summary
Climate change is one of the gravest challenges to sustainable development and necessitates a joint, responsible and solidarity-based response from the international community.
The Kyoto Protocol is the first concrete effort by the international community to prevent the risk of climate change and make a practical contribution to sustainable development.
The Assembly is concerned by recent US decision to abandon the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, and calls for political efforts be stepped up at all levels to ensure the continuity of the Kyoto process.
I. Draft resolution
1. Climate change is one of the gravest challenges to sustainable development, the health and well-being of humanity and the global economy, and necessitates a joint, responsible and solidarity-based response from the international community.
2. Being aware of the importance of the issue at stake, the international community has, in the framework of the United Nations, drawn up a Framework Convention on Climate Change1, which is aimed at stabilising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases at safe levels. Over 180 states have so far become parties to this convention.
3. The Kyoto Protocol, signed in 1997, sets specific objectives for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the industrialised countries that produce the greatest quantities of such gas. So far 84 States have signed the Protocol, including 34 Council of Europe member States.
4. The Assembly regrets that only 33 of the Parties to the Protocol have ratified it to date, and that only 4 member countries of the Council of Europe2 have done so.
5. The states signatory to the Kyoto Protocol are currently negotiating the mechanisms for its application, which should enable it to be ratified and to come into force by the end of 2002. The next Conference of Parties will be held in Bonn in July 2001.
6. The Assembly welcomes the fact that even before the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol several countries, particularly in Europe, have been actively endeavouring to approximate to the objectives set for them. Moreover, the European Union has introduced a special programme to help its member States to comply with the Kyoto objectives.
7. In this connection, the Assembly is particularly disappointed and concerned by recent statements from American officials, including President George W. Bush, to the effect that the United States of America, observer State with the Council of Europe, is no longer intending to comply with the objectives set out in the Kyoto Protocol.
8. The abandonment of the Kyoto process by the United States - the world’s largest economic power, which is responsible for over 25% of all global greenhouse gas emissions while accounting for less than 5% of the world’s population - undermines the whole Kyoto programme and compromises the solidarity-based efforts of the international community to prevent climate change.
9. The US decision is liable to deter other countries from making a political commitment to the objectives of the Kyoto Protocol, thus jeopardising its rapid entry into force.
10. Furthermore, the renouncement by President George W. Bush’s Administration of the commitments entered into by his predecessors casts doubt on the credibility of the United States as a reliable partner prepared to shoulder its share of responsibility vis-à-vis the global challenges facing humanity.
11. The Assembly attaches great importance to the Kyoto Protocol as the first concrete effort by the international community to prevent the risk of climate change and make a practical contribution to sustainable development.
12. We are all jointly responsible for ensuring that future generations can enjoy a healthy, viable environment providing equitable living and development conditions for all the inhabitants of the Earth. Committed solidarity on the part of all countries is a vital condition for achieving this.
13. Consequently, the Assembly calls on:
a. the Administration of President George W. Bush to reconsider its decision and reconfirm the commitments entered into by the United States under the Kyoto Protocol;
b. the governments and parliaments of member States of the Council of Europe to sign and/or ratify the Kyoto Protocol and to take all necessary steps to ensure its entry into force in 2002;
c. the governments of member States of the Council of Europe to exert pressure on the United States and the other Parties to encourage them to honour their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol.
II. Explanatory memorandum by Mr Behrendt
1. Introduction
1. Over the last few years, the populations of many European regions have suffered severe natural disasters. We need only think of the storm in December 1999 which claimed many casualties and devastated housing, infrastructures and forests in several countries. Recurrent flooding has become a scourge for the inhabitants of many parts of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain and a good many other European countries. Unusual climatic phenomena are also occurring increasingly frequently in other parts of the world.
2. There is a growing consensus in scientific circles that such phenomena are not isolated, random events but rather part of a global trend affecting our planet’s climate.
3. I will be referring below to the official statistics published by the Secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
2. Climate change: scientific data and foreseeable consequences
4. While the world's climate has always varied naturally, the vast majority of scientists now believe that rising concentrations of "greenhouse gases" in the earth's atmosphere, resulting from economic and demographic growth over the last two centuries since the industrial revolution, are overriding this natural variability and leading to irreversible climate change.
5. In 1995, the Second Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) confirmed that "the balance of evidence suggests that there is a discernible human influence on global climate". The Report projected that global mean surface temperatures would increase by between 1 and 3.5 C by 2100, the fastest rate of change since the end of the last ice age, and that global mean sea levels would rise by between 15 and 95 cm by 2100, flooding many low-lying coastal areas. Changes in rainfall patterns are also predicted, increasing the threat of drought, floods or intense storms in many regions.
6. The climate system is complex, and scientists still need to improve their understanding of the extent, timing and impacts of climate change. However, what we know already alerts us to the potentially dramatic negative impacts of climate change on human health, food security, economic activity, water resources and physical infrastructure.
7. Farming could be seriously disrupted, leading to falling crop yields in many regions. Tropical diseases are expected to spread; the geographical zone of potential malaria transmission, for example, could increase from around 45% of the world population today to approximately 60% by the latter half of this century. Sea level rise and changing weather patterns could also trigger large-scale migration from more seriously affected areas. While no one will be able to escape from climate change, it is the poorer people and countries who are most vulnerable to its negative impacts.
3. The emergence of political concern
8. Increasing scientific evidence of human interference with the climate system, coupled with growing public concern over global environmental issues, began to push climate change onto the political agenda in the mid-1980s. Recognising the needs of policy-makers for authoritative and up-to-date scientific information, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) established the IPCC in 1988.
9. That same year, following a proposal by the Government of Malta, the United Nations General Assembly took up the issue of climate change for the first time and adopted resolution 43/53 on the "Protection of global climate for present and future generations of mankind".
10. In 1990, the IPCC issued its First Assessment Report, confirming that climate change was indeed a threat and calling for a global treaty to address the problem. This call was echoed by the Ministerial Declaration of the Second World Climate Conference, held the same year. The UN General Assembly responded to these calls in December of 1990, formally launching negotiations on a framework convention on climate change by its resolution 45/212, and establishing an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC) to conduct those negotiations.
4. The Climate Change Convention
11. On 9 May 1992, the INC adopted by consensus the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Convention was opened for signature at the UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), the so-called "Earth Summit", in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 4 June 1992, and came into force on 21 March 1994.
12. Today, 184 governments and the European Community are Parties to the Convention. Parties meet regularly at the annual Conference of the Parties (COP) to review the implementation of the Convention and continue talks on how best to tackle climate change.
13. The Convention sets an "ultimate objective" of stabilizing atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases at safe levels. Such levels, which the Convention does not quantify, should be achieved within a time frame sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, to ensure that food production is not threatened and to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner.
14. To achieve this objective, all countries have a general commitment to address climate change, adapt to its effects, and report on the action they are taking to implement the Convention. The Convention then divides countries into two groups: those listed in its Annex I (known as "Annex I Parties") and those that are not so listed (so-called "non-Annex I Parties").
15. The Annex I Parties are the industrialized countries that have historically contributed the most to climate change. Their per capita emissions are higher than those of most developing countries, and they have greater financial and institutional capacity to address the problem. The principles of equity and "common but differentiated responsibilities" enshrined in the Convention therefore require these Parties to take the lead in modifying longer-term trends in emissions. To this end, Annex I Parties are committed to adopting national policies and measures with the non-legally binding aim of returning their greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000.
16. The Annex I Parties include both the relatively wealthy countries that were members of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1992, and countries with "economies in transition" (known as EITs), that is, the Russian Federation and several other Central and Eastern European countries. The Convention allows EITs "a certain degree of flexibility" in implementing their commitments, owing to the major economic and political upheavals that have taken place in these countries. Several EITs have invoked this clause to choose a baseline earlier than 1990, that is, before the economic changes which led to big reductions in their emissions.
17. The OECD members of Annex I are also listed in the Convention's Annex II. These countries have a special obligation to provide "new and additional financial resources" to developing countries to help them tackle climate change, as well as to facilitate the transfer of climate-friendly technologies to both developing countries and EITs.
18. The countries listed in Annex I are as follows: Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, European Community, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Monaco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, UK and USA.
19. All remaining countries, basically, the developing countries, make up the group of non-Annex I Parties. These countries must report in more general terms on their actions to address climate change and adapt to its effects. The time frame for the submission of their initial National Communications, including their Emission Inventories, is less tight than for Annex I Parties and is contingent on the receipt of funding from the Convention's financial mechanism, operated by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
20. The Convention recognises that financial assistance and technology transfer are critical to enabling non-Annex I Parties to address climate change and adapt to its effects, in the context of their sustainable development. Financial assistance is provided by Annex II Parties and mostly channelled through the Convention's financial mechanism, operated by the GEF.
5. The Kyoto Protocol
21. At the first COP, which was held in Berlin, Germany, in 1995, Parties decided that the specific commitments in the Convention for Annex I Parties were not adequate. They therefore launched a new round of talks to decide on stronger and more detailed commitments for these countries. After two and a half years of intense negotiations, the Kyoto Protocol was adopted at COP 3 on 11 December 1997.
22. The Kyoto Protocol commits Annex I Parties to individual, legally-binding targets to limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions3, adding up to a total cut of at least 5% from 1990 levels in the period 2008-2012. The individual targets for Annex I Parties range from an -8% cut for the EU and several other countries, to zero-growth or even increase for some others4. Under the terms of the Protocol, the EU may redistribute its target among its 15 member states. It has already reached agreement on such a scheme, known as a "bubble".
23. Some specified activities in the land-use change and forestry sector (namely, afforestation, deforestation and reforestation) that emit or remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere are also covered. All changes in emissions, and in removals by so-called "sinks", go into the same basket for accounting purposes.
24. The Protocol also establishes three innovative "mechanisms", known as joint implementation, emissions trading and the clean development mechanism, which are designed to help Annex I Parties reduce the costs of meeting their emissions targets by achieving or acquiring reductions more cheaply in other countries than at home. The clean development mechanism also aims to assist developing countries in achieving sustainable development by promoting environmentally-friendly investment in their economies from industrialized country governments and businesses.
25. However, while these mechanisms were agreed in principle in the Protocol, their operational details must now be fleshed out. In addition, Parties must develop the compliance system outlined in the Protocol, and further work is also needed on provisions for the land-use change and forestry sector, methodologies for estimating emissions and removals, and reporting obligations.
26. How to address the vulnerability of developing countries is another issue on the post-Kyoto political agenda. Some developing countries, such as low-lying island nations, are highly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, others feel more threatened by the potential economic repercussions of mitigation action. The Convention recognises both these dimensions of vulnerability, and also emphasises the special situation of least developed countries. Parties agreed to a programme of work (the "Buenos Aires Plan of Action") to reach agreement on these various issues, to be completed by the 6th Conference of Parties (COP 6) which will resume in Bonn in July 2001.
27. The Kyoto Protocol was open for signature between 16 March 1998 and 15 March 1999. 84 countries signed the Protocol during that period. In order to enter into force, the Protocol must be ratified (or adopted, approved, or acceded to) by 55 Parties to the Convention, including Annex I Parties accounting for 55% of carbon dioxide emissions from this group in 1990.
28. 33 countries have ratified or acceded to the Protocol to date, including only 4 members of the Council of Europe (Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Georgia and Romania). On 19 March 2001 Romania became the first - and so far the only Annex I country to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Most Parties are awaiting the outcome of negotiations on the operational details of the Protocol at COP 6. Many Parties wish to bring the Protocol into force by 2002, in time for the tenth anniversary of the Rio Conference and of the adoption and signing of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
6. The US position
29. Under pressure from the various industrial and oil lobbies, the representatives of the United States of America ensured that the talks at the 6th Conference of Parties in The Hague in November 2000 ended in failure.
30. In March 2001, several figures from the American Administration, including President George W. Bush himself, made statements to the effect that the United States of America was no longer intending to comply with the objectives set out in the Kyoto Protocol and was seeking the legal means of abandoning them.
31. Several reasons were put forward to justify this decision: the Protocol was unfair because it did not impose gas emission limits on developing countries; it might be detrimental to the interests of the American economy; it had no solid scientific basis, etc.
32. Concurrently, the United States has decided not to consider carbon dioxide as a pollutant within the meaning of American legislation on air quality (US Clean Air Act).
33. These American decisions call into question the consensus reached in Kyoto and are liable to jeopardise the whole process of climate change prevention. The United States of America, which accounts for less than 5% of the world’s population, emits over 25% of the world’s carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas. This makes the country the world’s largest polluter per head of population, with over 20 tonnes of CO² per year, the average for developed countries being 12 tonnes and for developing countries 2 tonnes. Moreover, although the American commitment had foreseen a 7% reduction of emissions by 2012 as compared with 1990, emissions in fact increased by 10% between 1990 and 2000.
7. Conclusion
34. The unilateral withdrawal of the United States from the Kyoto Protocol jeopardises the solidarity-based efforts of the international community to prevent climate change. The US decision is liable to deter other countries from making a political commitment to the objectives of the Kyoto Protocol and reduces the chances of the Kyoto process achieving the expected aims.
35. Yet it is vital for this first concrete effort by the international community to prevent the risk of climate change and make a practical contribution to sustainable development, to be followed by further genuine progress.
36. Therefore, political efforts must be stepped up at all levels to ensure the continuity of the Kyoto process and accordingly to induce the United States to change its mind about the Protocol.
*
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Reporting committee: Committee on the Environment and Agriculture
Reference to committee: Request for urgent procedure and Reference No. 2596 of 23 April 2001
Draft resolution adopted by the committee on 24 April 2001
Members of the committee: Mr Behrendt (Chairman), MM. Besostri (Alternate: Pingerra), Hoeffel (Alternate: Lengagne), Hornung (Alternate: Wodarg) (Vice-Chairmen), MM. Adamczyk, Agius, Mrs Agudo, MM. Akçali, Aliko, Andreoli, Mrs Angelovicova, MM. Annemans, Bartos, Bockel, Briane (Alternate: Dhaille), Browne, Mrs Burataeva, MM. de Carolis, Carvalho, Sir Sydney Chapman, MM. Colla, Cosarciuc, Cox, Diana (Alternate: Robol), Duivesteijn (Alternate: Eversdijk), von der Esch, Etherington, Frunda, Gonzalez de Txabarri (Alternate: de Puig), Graas, Grachev, Hadjidemetriou, Hadjiyeva, Haraldsson, Ilascu (Alternate: Mocioi), Kalkan, Mrs Kanelli, MM. Keuschnigg, Kharitonov, Kjaer, Kolesnikov, Kostenko (Alternate: Gaber), Kostytsky, Kurucsai (Alternate: Ms Herczog), Kurykin, Lachat (Alternate: Staehlin), Libicki, van der Linden, Lotz, Luczak (Alternate: Walendziak), Manukyan, Mariot, Martinez Casan, Mrs Mikaelsson, MM. Minkov, Monteiro, Müller, Pisanu, Podobnik, Polozhani, Prosser (Alternate: Taylor), Radic, Rise, Salaridze, Mrs Schicker, MM. Schmied (Alternate: Ms Fehr), Skopal, Stankevic, Stoica, Tanik, Tiuri, Toshev, Truu, Vakilov, Zierer, Mrs Zissi.
N.B. The names of those members present at the meeting are printed in italics.
Secretariat to the committee: Mrs Cagnolati, MM. Sixto and Chevtchenko.
1 Signed at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) on 4 June 1992, coming into force on 21 March 1994.
2 Azerbaijan, Cyprus, Georgia and Romania.
3 The targets cover emissions of the six main greenhouse gases, namely: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6).
4 For example, a +10% increase is possible for Iceland.