Is the Kyoto Protocol Really Going to Work?

There are number of scary predictions in South Korea now that South Korea’s climate will rapidly change from temperate zones to subtropical zones in 100 years due to heavy impact of global warming. What’s more scary is that an unusual change in weather happens quite often in South Korea lately. Usually, weather of South Korea cools down at the end of August when most of schools begin their fall semester, but many schools were forced to delay the beginning of the semester due to government’s heat precautions. Not only elderly people but also little kids had trouble sleeping because of high temperature. Some people might say air conditioning can solve the problem but will it ultimately set us free from problems caused by global warming?
People in many countries say that they already know enough about global warming. It’s hard to believe but they might be telling the truth. We hear how serious global warming is and what we have to do in order to solve this worldwide concern almost everyday from school, government, and media. Often times, we can see an eminent scholar from a prestigious university talks for hours on television about the ways to reduce green house gas (GHG) effectively. Al Gore, a former vice president of the United States even directed a film on global warming a while ago. It seems like everyone is interested in the topic and a lot of people are trying hard to solve this crisis but there isn’t much improvement. What is the reason? Are we still ignorant of this issue or is there something wrong with the solution people came up with?
The bottom line here is that we need to pay our attention to something called the Kyoto Protocol.
“You know, people always think of themselves first. For many people, their business and profit comes first rather than environmental concerns,” said Chul-Jun Lee, 24, an international student at CSUN. Chul-Jun came to Los Angeles, California 11 months ago to learn English. He attended a university in South Korea for two years and he was never interested in global warming issue. There were some activities at his school on finding answers for global warming but he simply didn’t care. “Maybe I didn’t feel the seriousness on my skin that time,” Chul-Jun said. After two years of college, he began his army service at the age of 21. Korean army was also not the best place to hear about global warming. Two years like that, he had no ideas why Korean weather is becoming hotter and hotter.
Surprisingly, the first place he earned valuable information on global warming was at CSUN. “At first, I had no idea what my professor was talking about. He kept repeating words like global warming and Kyoto Protocol,” Chul-Jun recalled. Discussion time was his favorite time in his class even though he was not a fluent English speaker, but he really had nothing to say that time because he didn’t have any information on global warming in his head. Plus, he didn’t know what Kyoto protocol meant at that time. However, Chul-Jun was not the only one who was lost in the class. Most of his classmates who are students from all over the world did not know much about the issue. “I think pretty much everyone was lost in the discussion. After the class, he began to research about global warming issue and what he found to be the most interesting was something the Kyoto Protocol, the international agreement on climate change which was the part of United Nation’s Framework Convention on Climate Change.
“The major job of Kyoto Protocol is to set target countries to reduce GHG emissions,” Chul-Jun confidently said what he learned so far from researching about Kyoto protocol.
Under the Protocol, countries’ GHG emission amounts are monitored and the records are kept. Because it is regarded as the first step to control’ GHG emissions internationally, it truly carries the goal to stabilize GHG emissions and offer many countries the positive impact of it for a similar future international agreement. At first sight, Kyoto Protocol sounds like a perfect plan. However, Chul-Jun sighed and said it is not so perfect for South Korea’s economics. Chul-Jun’s brother, Seok-Jun, 29, works for an auto trading company in Pa-Joo, South Korea. Lately, he calls Chul-Jun often times and complains about his company’s new concern. “My brother told me that Kyoto Protocol will bring his company down pretty soon,” Chul-Jun said. South Korea is not one of the main countries required to reduce GHG emissions now, but authorities say it is certain that Korea along with India, Mexico, and China will be one of the main countries which are targeted by Kyoto Protocol sooner or later. This means it will negatively affect South Korea’s economy including trading market.
Sang-Jae Lee, 35, a sales manager at a local branch of Kia Motors in Seoul, Korea is not very happy when he thinks about the future of his company. Due to Kyoto Protocol, every single model produced by motor companies is forced to satisfy the agreement’s strict environment friendly standards. “My concern about Kyoto Protocol is that it does not care about world’s economic development,” said Lee. According to him, not only the economy of developing countries but also the U.S economy will be affected as well if this international agreement gives pressure to reduce GHG emissions.
Then, what is America’s current viewpoint on Kyoto Protocol? Although many researchers are trying to curb it, carbon dioxide output continues to rise within the U.S. President candidates Barack Obama and John McCain are emphasizing the importance of slowing global warming but both of them did not mention a clear solution for this matter in their public speeches due to America’s recent financial crisis.
Daniel Curtis, an assistant professor of Bio Chemistry at CSUN thinks it is absurd that the United States did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol. “In our role as a global leader, I feel that it is important for the United States to set an example for the industrialized nations and begin reducing our greenhouse gas emissions significantly,” Curtis said.
He appeals the necessity of Kyoto Protocol but at the same time, he believes that we have a long way ahead of us into succeeding this project. “It is clear that the warming is happening faster than predicted when the Kyoto Protocol guidelines were written, particularly in Arctic. I feel that it was a good first attempt at curbing greenhouse gas emissions,” he said. According to him, there will need to be a much larger reduction in GHG emissions to slow global warming significantly in reality.
Part of his concern is the high cost of it. “Reducing our emissions will be very expensive, but it seems logical to me that it would generate thousands of new jobs to begin changing our energy production methods to be more sustainable,” Curtis said. Even though it will require a relatively large effort, he thinks the benefits of incorporating new technology will outweigh the costs if the desire is there. “Electrical generation could begin using more efficient methods within the next few years,” he added.
Ashwani Vasishth, an author and an assistant professor teaching Urban Studies at CSUN also stated that the next generation version of Kyoto Protocol is a necessary but insufficient step on the road to managing our climate change impacts. “I disagree with the common position that it is climate change action versus economic well-being. In fact, I think that the proper economic strategy is climate change mitigation,” said Vasishth. His argument is that we need to move away from managing our affairs from human-made capital toward managing our affairs for natural capital. He believes that’s the new constraint on the ecological economic system. “America should have ratified Kyoto Protocol, however imperfect it was. None of the signatories will actually meet the stated goals, for instance, but each has made significant progress that puts the U.S at a competitive disadvantage,” Vasishth added.
There will be the next meeting of Kyoto Protocol in December 2009. Both of presidential candidates promised that the U.S would play the key role in succeeding international climate change agreement in the future. We’ll see.
“America must participate actively in the up-coming post-Kyoto discussions, and not fall into the trap of hiding (cowering, actually) behind the current global economic recession,” Vasishth again stressed the importance of America’s participation on Kyoto treaty.
According to him, everything we can do to change the way we manage our economy, so that carbon becomes the new world currency, will move us closer to salvation and further from damnation. There are global, regional and local strategies, and all must be activated simultaneously for us to be able to move forward. “Personal action is key. Green building is key. Smart growth planning is key. Carbon taxes are key. All together, we will make it work. One by one, we all fall down,” Vasishth said. While developing countries and the U.S carry a bit of different standpoint on Kyoto Protocol, it is still uncertain if this international agreement would let us all free from a global warming headache.