Special
Report
Global Climate Change
Global Climate Change
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Special
Report
Global Climate Change |
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GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE -- KYOTO PROTOCOL IMPLEMENTATION:
Richard L. Ottinger & Mindy Jayne
Pace University School of Law CONTENTS: ACKNOWLEGEMENTS Warmest thanks are due to Dr. Arthur Rosenfeld of the Department of Energy and Amory and Hunter Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute, who have been guiding lights to me, as well as generations of other clean energy advocates, over the past decades. This paper draws heavily, as well, on the work of Howard Geller, Steven Nadel and their associates at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy - without their meticulous analysis of energy efficiency and renewables, those working to promote them would be severely knowledge-impoverished. The same can be said of Mark Levine, Joseph Eto, Jeffrey Harris and their colleagues at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Bill Chandler at the Battelle Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Steven Bernow of Tellus Institute, Michael Totten of the World Resources Institute Chris Flavin of the WorldWatch Institute, Adam Serchuk of the Renewable Energy Policy Project, Thomas Johansson of the United Nations Development Program, Henry Kelly and Sam Baldwin of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Ralph Cavanagh of the Natural Resources and Defense Council and Carol Werner of the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. All of the above experts were very helpful in identifying the myriad of sources utilized in the paper. Lastly, the prodigious international energy work and thoughtful analysis of Jose Goldemberg and Amulya Reddy, neither of whom I have yet been honored to meet, was invaluable. There were many others not named here who were generous of their time and invaluable for their information. All this help is gratefully acknowledged. Richard Ottinger An appropriate legal framework is essential to accomplishment
of clean energy solutions. This paper discusses legislative and regulatory
measures that have contributed to successes in achieving clean energy
improvements and concomitant reductions in releases of carbon dioxide
contributing to global warming. Examples of success stories are given
in both developed and developing countries, together with the legal framework
for their introduction. Getting the prices right is critical to advancement of all forms of clean energy. This requires legislative action to assure that all energy resources bear the full externality costs of their impact on society, including the mortality, health and environmental damage they impose and national security costs that are not reflected in their prices. Externalities can be dealt with by taxes or by regulations that limit harmful emissions from polluting resources. Where energy resources are regulated by government, it is important that intermittent resources like solar energy not be disadvantaged. In selection of resources, the full life cycle cost of the resource must be considered rather than the first cost: e.g. solar may have a high first cost but, because there are no fuel costs and low maintenance costs, the life cycle cost of the resource is lower. Market transformation measures such as energy efficiency standards for appliances, lights and motors, and miles per gallon standards for vehicles, can be an effective legal mechanism for reducing pollution and encouraging the substitution of clean for dirty energy resources. Citizen suits are a very effective enforcement modality. It is concluded that clean energy resources can be introduced and dirty resources discouraged by any country affordably and that no country can afford to fail to do so.
There is no greater challenge to the future generations who will inherit our earth than to resolve the threats of global warming, identified by the consensus of world scientists through the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as presenting unprecedented hazards of rising oceans, flooding and inundation of coastal areas, agricultural disruption, migration of tropical diseases and increased frequency and severity of storms. And no bigger undertaking has ever been attempted by the international community than to devise effective means of implementing the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change adopted in 1992 at the Rio Earth Summit to address these threats. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) identified emissions of carbon dioxide as the chief contributor to global warming. The principal remedy prescribed in Article 2 of the December 1997 Kyoto Protocol for implementation of the Rio Treaty is the adoption of clean energy solutions: Aenergy efficiency enhancement in relevant sectors of national economies; increased use of renewable forms of energy; removal of fiscal incentives and subsidies promoting greenhouse gas emissions; and limitations and reductions of emissions.@ The burning of fossil fuels is the most significant source of carbon dioxide emissions worldwide. The principal problem with substitution of clean energy for fossil fuels is that the present use of them is so central to the world's economies, fueling their electric utilities, industry, vehicles, heating and cooling of buildings, and often their household cooking. Developing countries have focussed on their economic development and the feeding, clothing, housing and health facilities for their populations, often regarding environmental improvements and clean energy as at best secondary priorities. But it is clear that the choice for developing countries is not social development or clean energy - if present growth trends in developing country energy demand continue, world resources quite simply will be inadequate to support their needs either for energy or development. Thus enormous economic and cultural barriers must be breached to shift from dependence on fossil fuels to clean energy resources. The perceived difficulties of this transformation were seen in the tortuous negotiations of the Kyoto protocols in 1997 and in the small accomplishments achieved in the negotiations of COP 1-5 (Conferences of the Parties). These difficulties were evidenced by the modest goals recommended compared to what the IPCC scientists have identified as the carbon dioxide reductions needed to ameliorate global warming; the lack of mandatory reductions for developing countries (though many have done more than the industrialized countries to address climate change); and the problems, still unresolved, of adopting enforcement mechanisms and of getting the United States, the largest polluter, to ratify the Treaty. The task of achieving the Kyoto carbon dioxide reduction goals, however, is not nearly as daunting or costly as some have made it appear. Many governments, utilities and private companies throughout the world have instituted measures that have achieved substantial carbon dioxide reductions. Many of these measures have been funded from internal sources; most have produced large net revenues by instituting more efficient processes and using more efficient products. As the world comes to realize the awesome threats and costs of global warming, many new initiatives are being taken in both the public and private sectors to address carbon dioxide emissions. This paper describes the measures that have been and can be taken and the legal mechanisms by which successes have been achieved in reducing greenhouse gases. Examples are given of success stories from around the world, but these examples are just demonstrative. Many hundreds of programs have been pursued successfully around the world in both industrial and developing countries. What does emerge, however, is clear evidence that global warming can be effectively addressed and that many significant steps have taken profitably in both the public and private sectors, offering significant business, export and job opportunities, and that much can be done by accessing internal resources. To meet the challenges of the Kyoto Protocols and the IPCC estimates of what needs to be done, however, much more extensive and resolute changes must be taken by both governments and corporations, with much greater financing of the up front costs by them and by multilateral institutions. DOWNLOAD (Word format) |
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