Kyoto Protocol
Kyoto Protocol
U.S. Senate Opposed Kyoto Protocol in 1997 and Today
In July 1997, the U.S. Senate passed S. Res. 98 by a vote of 95-0. S. Res. 98 expressed the sense of the Senate that the "United States should not be a signatory to any protocol . . . which would
(A) mandate new commitments to limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions from Annex I parties, unless the protocol . . . also mandates new specific scheduled commitments to limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions for Developing Country Parties within the same compliance period, or
(B) would result in serious harm to the economy of the United States . . ."
U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 105th Congress - 1st Session, Vote Date: July 25, 1997, 11:37 AM, Question: On the Resolution (s.res.98 ) Declares that the United States should not be a signatory to any protocol to, or other agreement regarding, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change of 1992, at negotiations in Kyoto in December 1997 or thereafter which would: (1) mandate new commitments to limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the Annex 1 Parties, unless the protocol or other agreement also mandates new specific scheduled commitments to limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions for Developing Country Parties within the same compliance period; or (2) result in serious harm to the U.S. economy.
YEAs 95
NAYs 0
Not Voting 5
Russia Signs Kyoto Protocol -- Activates Treaty
Russia officially ratified the Kyoto Protocol and sent its papers to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in Nairobi on November 18, 2004. The treaty will take effect in 90 days from this date. The protocol has the support from countries that emit 55 percent of the world's greenhouse gases.
The 1997 Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change will enter into force on February 16, 2005. The United States and Australia have refused to ratify the treaty. Although Russia produces 17 per cent of emissions, the United States produced 36 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions in 1990.
UNITED NATIONS FRAMEWORK CONVENTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE
The protocol shares the convention's objective of committing signatories to individual, legally-binding targets to limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Only Parties to the Convention that have become Parties to the Protocol, are listed in the Kyoto Protocol's list. These add up to a total cut in greenhouse-gas emissions of at least 5% from 1990 levels in the commitment period 2008-2012.
President Bush's Global Climate Change Initiative
As part of his Clear Skies Initiative, President Bush wants to reduce the Greenhouse Gas Intensity of the U.S. Economy by 18 Percent in the Next Ten Years. Greenhouse gas intensity measures the ratio of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to economic output. This new approach focuses on reducing the growth of GHG emissions, while sustaining the economic growth needed to finance investment in new, clean energy technologies. It sets America on a path to slow the growth of greenhouse gas emissions, and – as the science justifies – to stop and then reverse that growth:
- In efficiency terms, the 183 metric tons of emissions per million dollars GDP that we emit today will be lowered to 151 metric tons per million dollars GDP in 2012.
- Existing trends and efforts in technology improvement will play a significant role. Beyond that, the President's commitment will achieve 100 million metric tons of reduced emissions in 2012 alone, with more than 500 million metric tons in cumulative savings over the entire decade.
- This goal is comparable to the average progress that nations participating in the Kyoto Protocol are required to achieve.
Methane-to-Markets Partnership
President Bush is addressing global warming through a program Methane to Markets. The United States joined 13 other countries in November 16 2004 agreements that formally created a partnership to advance international cooperation in recovering and using methane as a profitable source of clean energy. Signatories include representatives from Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, Colombia, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia, Ukraine and the United Kingdom in the signing ceremony that launched the global Methane-to-Markets Partnership. The program is a voluntary public-private partnerships to reduce methane emissions -- programs created in the early 1990s to meet U.S. commitments under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
Methane is a clean-burning fuel that is the main component of natural gas. It accounts for 16 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions from human sources and is the second most prevalent after carbon dioxide. Significantly reducing methane emissions is one of the most cost-effective ways to realize immediate environmental benefits because of methane's potency as a greenhouse gas and its short atmospheric lifetime.
Participants negotiated and signed the Terms of Reference document that outlines the partnership's purpose, organization and functions. EPA will lead the partnership, working closely with the Department of State, the Department of Energy, the U.S. Trade and Development Agency and the U.S. Agency for International Development. Partner countries are expected to undertake activities aimed at capturing and using methane emitted from landfills, coal mines, and oil and gas systems. Benefits of the international partnership include improved energy security and air quality from the use of clean-burning methane as natural gas, improved coalmine safety, enhanced economic growth, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions of methane.
According to the EPA, the partnership has the potential to deliver by 2015 annual reductions in methane emissions of up to 50 million metric tons of carbon equivalent or recovery of 500 billion cubic feet of natural gas. This is roughly equal to removing 33 million cars from roadways for a year or eliminating emissions from 50 500-megawatt coal-fired power plants.
The United States will contribute $53 million over five years and hundreds of millions of dollars of private-sector investment will be leveraged to focus on three key areas in which the United States:
- constructing modern landfills and capturing methane from the landfills to use as an energy source,
- capturing and recovering methane from coal mining operations, and
- capturing methane from oil and gas production and distribution activities.
The program focuses on three essential goals for these countries:
- their interest in energy security,
- in reducing the pollution associated with energy production and generation, and
- in significantly reducing a greenhouse gas over the long term.
Partner countries include developed and developing countries, signatories of the Kyoto Protocol, countries that have not signed the treaty, and countries with large populations such as China, India and Russia.
The four 10-year-old programs encourage:
- the additional recovery of methane from landfill gas,
- work with the oil and gas industry to reduce methane emissions from points in the oil and gas system,
- work with the coal industry to capture methane from mines, and
- work with the agriculture industry to recover methane from large animal waste lagoons.
Partnership participants are also looking at the agriculture sector, particularly at livestock waste. The Methane to Markets Ministerial Meeting agenda is available at http://www.epa.gov/methanetomarkets/docs/agenda1110.pdf
For additional information on Methane to Markets visit: http://www.epa.gov/methanetomarkets
Methane-to-Markets fact sheets and other information is available at http://www.epa.gov/methanetomarkets/index.htm
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