• Home
• Articles
• Essays
• Add site

Kyoto Protocol

Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change


(Kyoto Protocol) is one of the most important amendments to an international treaty, which was initially considered and opened for signing in December 1997. This amendment is the result of concern of our entire society about environmental problems, including global heating, air pollution, etc. The amendment came into effect in February 2005, and now there are 156 nations, including many heavily industrialized countries, which ratified this protocol.

Kyoto Protocol obligates the countries to limit emission of a number of gases, like methane, carbon dioxide, hydrofluorocarbon, nitroxide, and others, which are very dangerous for normal climatic conditions on earth. According to the protocol, industrialized countries have to lower their emission of such dangerous gases by 5.2%, if to compare with the amounts of emissions in 1990.

Besides, the protocol includes so called "emissions trading": for example, if a country does not pollute the air much, meets the requirements under the protocol and has some "free credits" as to dangerous gases, it can sell these free credits to another (more industrialized) country for some money. So, the latter can release more gases, but still these both countries together will not exceed their joint limit. This is typical for Russia, which has free credits, and Canada, which buys them.

The President of the United States favored to signing up Kyoto Protocol, but it is not ratified yet in the USA, as well as in Australia. Administration of President Clinton discovered that ratification of this protocol can considerably affect the economy of the country. Our current President G.W. Bush also demonstrates no intentions to ratify the treaty, not only because of its threat to American economy, but also because of unfair calculation of quotas for pollution for many heavily industrialized countries, like China, India, etc.

Personally I would not agree with this policy of our President. I do not think that making investments into scientific researches, creating more effective filters or other protective devices will seriously damage our economic indexes. We must be concerned about our future generations and their comfortable life. Besides, ignoring the protocol affects positive image of our country on international level, and this is really embarrassing nowadays for many Americans, I guess.

Posted by: FICHTNER, SANDEE

Best Custom Writing Sites

Sites that provide custom writing services are better alternative to downloading pre-written paper samples, especially if you temporarily can't handle writing your own paper for some reason, and can not afford risking your course and reputation for plagiarism detection failure. The prices for custom written essays are affordable, but if you need 15-pages long master level report overnight, you better prepare to spend a noticeable sum.