The Kyoto Protocol is an “international regime”, or system of rules, created to lower greenhouse gas emissions and slow down the global warming process (History 1). Most international systems of rules evolve through a process that originates as a collection of soft or non-abiding laws. These are either adopted or not by various nations. Slowly, over time from a bottom-up approach, these soft laws evolve into a binding international set of laws like Maritime law. However, the Kyoto Protocol is a top-down approach, whereby nations are trying to create a formal set of laws based on “widespread legal obligations and penalties” (History 1).
The Kyoto Protocol originated in 1992, when 154 countries signed the U. N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. There are four main elements to the Convention:
The objective of the Convention is to stabilize greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere within a timeframe sufficient to allow ecosystems to adapt naturally to climate change, to ensure that food production is not threatened, and to enable economic development to proceed in a sustainable manner.
Under the Convention, developed countries (such as Canada) are to take a leadership role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The Convention did not provide for precise emission-reduction targets or timetable, or a penalty system to punish violators.
Countries would meet regularly at meetings referred to as a “Conference of the Parties” or COP to discuss the implementation of the Conventions objectives.
Subsequent COP have been held in Berlin (1995), Geneva (1996), Kyoto (1997), Buenos Aires (1998), Bonn (1999) and Hague (2000) and Marrakech (2001). These accords have dealt with a variety of issues that are important to all nations or specific ones who take issue with some of the Kyoto Protocol’s regulations. George W. Bush, being elected president between the Hague and Bonn accords, immediately announced that h...