UNFCCC: Compromise and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

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At the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992, many countries wished to have legally binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions to be included in the summit, but the United States of America refused to agree because it claimed that there were still scientific uncertainties regarding the need to take action in limiting gas emission. Besides, since limiting gas emissions will cutting energy consumption, it will give unacceptable economic impacts. Since the United States is one of the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, so it was very important that the United States signed the convention, where to ensure that the United States get on the board, the more progressive countries were forced to compromise their positions. So, as a result, the final treaty, known as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), only included the ambiguous and legally weak ‘aim’ that requiring the industrialized countries (listed in Annex I of the Convention) to cut down their greenhouse gas …show more content…

According to the protocol, overall global reduction must be at least five per cent in 1990 levels of greenhouse gases by 2008-2012. However, the Kyoto Protocol is not a simple document because both of the commitments and the mechanisms on how the developed country Parties can achieve the target are extremely complex. Although all countries recognized the need to cut global emissions of greenhouse gases, but since many developed countries are depend on the fossil fuel industry for their economy, they refused to agree with the limitation of their domestic greenhouse gas emission. This resulting the failure of the Protocol in protecting the earth from climate change, which is supposed to be the reason of its

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