Kyoto Protocol is not perfect, but effective
3rd October 2009 by Richard Gunawan
With the Copenhagen round less than three months away, it’s easy to forget that Kyoto – signed by 37 industrialised countries and the European Union — is nearing its 12th birthday. Its critics argue that few signatory nations will meet their binding five-year targets to reduce by 5% their county’s green house emissions by 2012 against 1990 levels.
But the vulnerabilities of Kyoto’s ‘cap-and-trade’ system, known as the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), are better understood now, as are its benefits. That is especially true in China, where about 60% of the CDM scheme’s carbon credits have been earned, according to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
Aside from allowing developed economies to implement emissions-reducing projects in developing countries such as China, the CDM was created to stimulate sustainable development and emissions reduction, by promoting renewable energy sources, for example.
Industry experts continue to question whether all CDM-related projects deliver real reductions. Those concerns have proven both legitimate and beneficial to mitigation process that is still in its infancy. And the UNFCCC has acted to protect the sector’s image, passing new regulations to govern the principle of “additionality”, which assures that carbon credits are only awarded for mitigation projects that would not have occurred anyway, and to stop CO2 reductions from being double-counted.
Some opponents of the CDM process argue that a global carbon tax would be more transparent and less complicated. But that is not a practical solution. Politicians of all stripes know how difficult it is to agree on simple taxation issues, let alone a complex issue such as a carbon tax. How would the EU agree a common tax rate across its member countries and how long would it take to achieve this? How would the funds be spent? And even if Europe were to devise a common carbon tax in time, what is the likelihood that China, India or the US would agree?
While it is easy to criticise the CDM process, it is important to note its successes. According to the UNFCCC this week, there are 1,806 registered projects, about 73% of which are based in the Asia Pacific region. Those projects are expected to off-set an average of 313.1 million metric tonnes of carbon emissions each year to 2012, generating 1.64 billion carbon credits.
Despite its growing pains, the CDM process has been instrumental in reducing global carbon emissions, albeit not yet as quickly enough to reverse the impact of Global Warming. But the process works. No one is saying the Kyoto Protocol is perfect; and most are hoping that Copenhagen will deliver a more effective way to reverse climate change.
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Richard Gunawan is Vice President for business and sustainability development for LRQA Asia. He has more than 15 years of commercial experience and is committed to assisting businesses in Asia to mitigate risks and to grow in line with CSR principles. Richard has an MBA and was educated in Australia. He also has spent more [...]