Basic Questions

What is climate change?

The burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and natural gas releases a number of gases. We burn fossil fuels when we drive our cars, use coal-fired electricity, fly in planes or consume products. Some of the gases released from burning fossil fuels are greenhouse gases, which act like a blanket around the earth, trapping heat and warming the earth's atmosphere. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most common out of several greenhouse gases. Industrialised countries have released huge amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere from burning fossil fuels, and have caused a human induced change in the earth's climate.

For more climate change science see the United Nations website, CSIRO's frequently asked questions and climate basics from Climateprediction.net.

How do we solve climate change?

Climate change is a global issue that will affect all of us. If we work together and take immediate action we can stop dangerous climate change. Industrialised countries need to reduce greenhouse pollution by 20% by 2020, and by 80% by the middle of the century, if we are to combat climate change.

The key ways to avoid dangerous climate change are:

• Set legally binding targets to reduce our climate change pollution
• Switch to renewable energy sources, like solar and wind power, and move away from dirty coal.
• Set energy efficiency targets to ensure we use energy wisely.
• Shift from private cars to public transport.
• Stop broad scale land clearing.

We have the technology to reduce our greenhouse pollution. Our government needs to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and legislate targets to reduce our greenhouse pollution for this potential to become reality.

For more information on the action we need to take to combat climate change, see http://www.cana.net.au/documents/real_way_forward.pdf

What is the Kyoto Protocol

The Kyoto Protocol is the international plan to reduce climate change pollution. 166 countries have agreed to work within the Kyoto Protocol. It sets targets for industrialised countries to reduce their pollution, and gives them flexibility as to how they can reach these targets. The Kyoto Protocol has established the international carbon trading market. Developing countries participate in the Kyoto Protocol in a number of ways, including through the Clean Development Mechanism (link to CDM section here). The first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol runs from 2008 to 2012, and future commitment period targets are being negotiated now.

More information on the Kyoto Protocol can be found here.

What is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)?

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is a broad statement of principles and objectives to address climate change. Participating governments agree to share information on the amount of greenhouse gas pollution they emit, and on possible solutions to climate change, in addition to providing information and financial support to help developing countries reduce emissions.

The UNFCCC is a voluntary convention, without any binding targets. Once it became clear that under a voluntary system climate change pollution was increasing, rather than decreasing, the Kyoto Protocol was negotiated to ensure a safe climate outcome.

More information on UNFCCC can be found here.

Kyoto Protocol Basics

The Kyoto Protocol is the international communities plan to avoid dangerous climate change. Whilst the Kyoto Protocol is not perfect, it is an important step towards a global reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. Importantly, it is the only international agreement that offers a framework to avoid dangerous climate change.

The negotiation for the Protocol was completed in December 1997 in Kyoto. The United States and Australia were involved in the negotiations, and key parts of the Kyoto Protocol were included at their insistence.

The Kyoto Protocol recognises that developed countries have caused the majority of greenhouse gas emissions and thus bear the bulk of the responsibility for the climate change we've already experienced. These developed countries are identified in Annex 1 of the Protocol, and they agreed to adopt targets to reduce their climate change pollution. The targets (or commitments) differ from country to country, but overall the goal was to reduce climate change pollution by 5% by 2012.

Commitments under the Protocol to meet greenhouse gas reduction targets vary from nation to nation. Some developed countries are required to reduce emissions, some to keep their emissions constant, and some are allowed to increase emissions by a certain amount. Greenhouse gas targets for 2008-2012 are shown in the Table below.

The European Union (EU) has made its own internal agreement to meet its 8 per cent reduction target by distributing different rates to its member states. These targets range from a 28 per cent reduction by Luxembourg and 21 per cent cuts by Denmark and Germany to a 25 per cent increase by Greece and a 27 per cent increase by Portugal.

Developing countries can still participate in reducing emissions, particularly through the CDM (link to CDM here), but they do not have mandatory targets for the first commitment period.

Currently targets for reducing greenhouse gases have been set for the first commitment period (2008-2012). Negotiation for future targets and commitments began in November 2005, and will continue at the next Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol in Nairobi in November 2006. (Link to What Happens Post 2012?)

Who has joined the Kyoto Protocol?

The Kyoto Protocol has been ratified (adopted) by 166 countries, including India and China. The Protocol entered into force on 16 February 2005. This means that countries who have ratified the Protocol are legally obligated to meet their targets for greenhouse gas reduction.

For a full list of countries who have ratified the Kyoto Protocol, click here.

Flexibility in Meeting Kyoto Targets

The Kyoto Protocol has a number of “Flexibility Mechanisms”. They allow developed countries flexibility in how they meet their emission reduction targets. They include:

• Emissions Trading (link to section)
• Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) (link to section)
• Joint Implementation (JI) (link to section)

Mechanisms for achieving Kyoto targets:

Participating countries in the Kyoto Protocol may contribute towards meeting their targets in three ways over and above action in their own country: emissions trading; the clean development mechanism; and joint implementation.

Emissions Trading

The Kyoto Protocol allows countries to “trade carbon” as a way of meeting their emission reduction targets. If one country reduces its emissions by more than its Kyoto target requires, it can sell its surplus emissions reductions (carbon abatement) to another country. The second country can then exceed its emissions target by this amount. These trades are often referred to as “carbon credits” or “carbon offsets” and they are one way of creating a price on carbon.

Emissions trading uses the principle that the atmosphere is a global commons, and it doesn't matter where the emissions reduction occurs, as long as it occurs. By making the source of emissions reduction flexible, emissions trading allows lowest cost abatement options.

Emissions trading creates a financial value for reducing emissions, which acts as an incentive and can be used to fund carbon abatement projects.

The European Union have implemented their own Kyoto compliant emissions trading scheme to meet their Kyoto targets. (More information)

The International Emissions Trading Association has done a report on Emissions Trading around the world (more information). It shows that in the first 3 quarters of 2006 the EU Emissions Trading Scheme had a value of $19billion US, and had traded 764Mt CO2. (by comparison, Australia's total emissions are 550Mt CO2).

For a critical view of emissions trading: http://www.dhf.uu.se/

If emissions trading is designed well it could help us substantially reduce our greenhouse pollution. If it is designed badly it could be an elaborate way to disguise a lack of action and transfer wealth to polluters. Read the important things to get right for emission trading to be effective here.

Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) allows developed countries to run emission reducing projects in those developing countries who are signatories to the Protocol and then use any emission reductions towards meeting their own targets. The CDM also aims to help developing countries achieve sustainable development and contribute to the emissions reduction objective of the Protocol.

The first projects under the CDM were registered in November 2004. This was followed by a rapid expansion in project development, so that at the start of April 2006 some 181 projects were registered. There are also over 500 additional projects in the pipeline. Although these projects collectively represent around one million mega-tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent abatement by 2012, there are concerns that desirable projects related to renewable low-carbon energy and energy efficiency only account for 29 per cent of the forecast abatement (the remainder are accounted for as reductions in other industrial gases and methane).

For a detailed review of the performance of the Clean Development Mechanism see: Measuring the Clean Development Mechanism’s Performance and Potential” http://iis-db.stanford.edu/pubs/21211/Wara_CDM.pdf.

Joint Implementation (JI)

Joint Implementation (JI) allows a developed country to undertake a project that reduces greenhouse gas emissions in another developed country, and then count the resulting emission reductions towards its own national target.

Deforestation/LULUCF

Processes which remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere are known as carbon "sinks". Under the Kyoto Protocol the removal of greenhouse gas emissions through carbon sinks (known as carbon sequestration – literally storage of carbon) can be used to meet emission reduction targets. The Kyoto protocol treats the growing of new forests as one such carbon "sink", claiming that growing new forests can remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. However, this is problematic because growing a forest can not store carbon for as long as it take for fossil fuels to form (approximately 100,000 years) due to drought, fire, tree die-back etc. Sinks are also likely to be a monoculture (only one species) because of cost factors. Monocultures create ecological and social problems, like rising water tables from eucalypt water use and loss of access to forests and common land once it is locked-up for credits. Also planting trees for carbon credits is an offset for producing emissions when the solution is in achieving a net reduction in GHG emissions from all sectors of the economy.

A more effective carbon conservation measure is the prevention of deforestation. Emissions from logging are in the order of 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Preventing forests from being cleared stops these emissions from occurring. Currently under negotiation is an avoided deforestation mechanism that will provide technological and financial support for developing countries (and big tropical forest loggers) such as Brazil, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and the Congo, to protect their forests from logging and avoid future emissions.

Fore more information on Land Use Change issues and climate change visit http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/LUC.

Technology Transfer

Under the UNFCCC, developed countries are required to share new technologies and solutions with developing countries to help them to reduce their own emissions. Examples of greenhouse gas reduction technologies include renewable energy, energy efficiency, and other pollution reduction measures including improved water management, waste management and air pollution systems.

The discussion of technology transfer has been happening under the UNFCCC within the Expert Group on Technology Transfer (EGTT). This is limited, and has yet to achieve the sort of results we will need to allow developing countries to develop along a low emissions pathway.

Other forums in which technology transfer have been discussed, include the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (link to this section), and the Methane to Markets partnership (http://www.methanetomarkets.org) and the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (http://www.cslforum.org). Although it is not clear how this forum will overcome the intellectual property issues associated with the true transfer of technology to developing countries.

Adaptation for developing countries

All countries of the world will be affected by climate change. But the impacts of climate change will disproportionately affect those societies who have contributed the least to the problem. For example, low-lying Pacific states, collectively responsible for fewer than 0.6% of the world's emissions, face dispossession, as their islands become uninhabitable. For more details on impacts of climate change go to http://www.cana.net.au/socialimpacts/

Developing countries don't have the resources that the wealthy countries have to adapt to the impacts of climate change. They are often cultures that rely on the land (farming and hunting) for subsistence and economic activity. These countries and cultures will be the first to feel the impacts of climate change.

Adaptation programs aim to assess projected impacts of climate change in developing countries and fund projects to counter the impacts of climate change. Climate change adaptation requires successful implementation of measures that are already environmental and development priorities (energy and water conservation, access to energy, flood control, food security, water resources management). Climate change adaptation and development are mutually reinforcing and cannot be considered in isolation.

As developed countries have caused the climate change we have experienced to date, they have a responsibility to finance adaptation programs.

There are 3 adaptation funds within the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol:

• Special Climate Change Fund
• Least Developed Countries Fund This fund was developed to help Least Developed Countries plan for and carry out national adaptation programmes of action (NAPAs).
• Adaptation Fund under the Kyoto Protocol The Adaptation Fund under the Kyoto Protocol is funded by a levy on all CDM projects. The other two funds are voluntary, and have received very small contributions ( more information) from developed countries to date. Total pledges to an equivalent of $42m USD have been made to the LDCF, and $38m USD to the SCCF. Compare this to the estimates by the World Bank of the total cost of adaptation, through ‘climate-proofing’ development range between $10bn - $40bn annually.

Link to UNFCCC website on adaptation: http://unfccc.int/adaptation/items/2973.php

A five-year programme of work on the scientific, technical and socio-economic aspects of impacts, vulnerability and adaptation to climate change, has begin under the UNFCCC, addressing the following issues:

• Methodologies, data, and modeling
• Vulnerability assessments
• Adaptation planning, measures and actions
• Integration into sustainable development

More detail on the five-year work plan

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) (or Geosequestration)

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), also known as Geosequestration, refers to technologies that capture greenhouse gases and pump them below the earth’s surface for storage. In most instances this technology is being considered for use with coal fired power stations to lesson their CO2 impact.

Current industry and government research is increasingly looking into the storage of carbon dioxide in oil fields as a means of preventing its release into the atmosphere. These developments as part of the discussion of future energy technologies raise many questions from an environmental point of view. NGOs are monitoring them closely.

Among the key concerns NGOs have about carbon capture are:

• Doubts as to whether CO2 storage can really be made permanent. While oil and gas fields are reasonably well understood over periods of a few decades, the long-term performance of seals and the character of other formations such as saline aquifers is much less well understood. CO2 would need to be trapped permanently - meaning at a minimum for thousands of years.
• Continuing our dependence on coal. There are many other problems associated with coal, from health problems to air pollution and the exploitation of developing countries.
• Even if carbon capture and storage helps solve the climate problem, it may delay the uptake of renewable energy sources that offer a more sustainable future. Investment that goes into building carbon capture and storage technology increases our cola infrastructure instead of leading on a more sustainable path through renewable energy investment.

Conversely, if done as part of a transition to a hydrogen economy, there are potential benefits. These include reduced air pollution from vehicles and more modern fossil power plants (Integrated Gasification Combines Cycle, or IGCC, for instance), and thus improvements to human health. If carbon capture and storage is combined with biomass fuel, it may also offer the only opportunity to return to pre-industrial levels of atmospheric CO2 concentrations.

Aviation and international shipping (bunker fuels)

Greenhouse gas emissions from international air and sea transport are amongst the fastest growing component of global emissions, but are currently not included in individual country targets under the Kyoto Protocol. This means that there are no targets for reducing emissions from air travel. Emissions from air travel are especially potent, with one trip in a long haul flight emitting more greenhouse gas than a single car does over the course of one year.

Currently aviation makes up approximately 3.5 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. This could rise to 15 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 unless emissions reduction targets are established for international travel.

For information on the European Union’s response to international air travel visit here.

For information on people’s attitudes to addressing the issue of greenhouse gas and air travel see “Air Travel And Climate Change” here.

Kyoto Protocol Myths and Misconceptions

The Kyoto Protocol is the first step by the international community along the road to a comprehensive global framework to solve climate change. A number of people have perpetuated myths about the Kyoto Protocol, and this website hopes to clarify these.

MYTH: India and China are left out of the Kyoto Protocol.

India and China have ratified the Kyoto protocol and are participating in over $5 billion worth of CDM projects (link to CDM section) for emissions reductions projects through the Kyoto Protocol’s carbon trading program. The Clean Development Mechanism is expected to deliver $130 billion annually in emissions reduction projects in developing countries.

The Stern Review recently stated that effective international action on climate required that a global price for carbon price to be set. The Kyoto Protocol extends carbon trading and so could give carbon a price in countries that produce 55% of global greenhouse emissions.

Discussions for commitments by large developing countries emitters such as India and China are occurring within the Kyoto Protocol negotiations for the post 2012 phase. The USA and Australia, as non members of the Kyoto Protocol can only participate as observers.

MYTH: Many countries that have ratified Kyoto will not meet their targets.

Emissions trading is central to the Kyoto Protocol. If all countries met their Kyoto targets domestically there would be very little carbon trading. Carbon trading enables pollution reductions to be undertaken in the country where they can be achieved for the least cost. Countries can institute projects in other countries to reduce emissions. The financing country can then claim those emissions reductions towards meeting their own Kyoto pollution reduction target.

The first Kyoto commitment period is from 2008 to 2012, therefore countries have until 2012 to acquit their Kyoto targets (and can choose to do so by emissions trading).

Why haven't the USA and Australia joined the Kyoto Protocol?

USA

With less than five percent of the world’s population, the United States is responsible for about 25 percent of total global warming pollution. Despite this fact, in 2001 President George W. Bush withdrew the U.S. from the Kyoto process, claiming that the Protocol was unfair to industrialized countries and would hurt the U.S. economy.

Although many industrialized countries are reducing emissions while growing their economies, proving Bush’s assertions are not warranted, his administration has continued to oppose Kyoto and any sort of mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions. As President Bush continues to deny the science of climate change and confuse the U.S. public about its solutions, it seems clear that the President’s decision to withdraw from Kyoto was based largely on his administration’s relationship with the fossil fuel industry rather than on any scientific or economic fact.

Thankfully, Americans are not waiting for the Bush administration to take action and are coming up with creative solutions to reduce global warming pollution throughout the country. From regional cap and trade commitments to increasing renewable energy standards, many states are now participating in a sweeping trend to reduce carbon emissions and increase renewable energy. And Washington is hearing the message – this year an unprecedented number of bills were introduced in the U.S. Congress that focus on climate change. Even the U.S. Supreme Court is planning to hear a case about whether CO2 should be regulated as a pollutant.

For more information on state and local action in the U.S. read USCAN’s report “Turning the Tide” http://www.usclimatenetwork.org/international-leadership/turningtidehome

Australia

Australia has the highest emissions per capita of any developed country in the world, and is the 17^th largest total greenhouse polluter, even with only 20 million citizens. (link to Pew Centre report, Climate Data: Insights and Observations, December 2004 http://www.pewclimate.org/docUploads/Climate%20Data%20new%2Epdf)

Australia was involved in negotiating the Kyoto Protocol, and was one of the first countries to sign (a precursor to ratifying) in 1997.

Australia negotiated for itself the second most generous target under the Kyoto Protocol – agreeing to limit increases in greenhouse emissions by 8% (compared to an overall 5% decrease).

Prime Minister John Howard, said that Australia joining Kyoto would make a “massive contribution to the world environmental effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions but also to protect Australian jobs”, and that Kyoto represented a “win for the environment and a win for Australian jobs”.

After the US walked away from ratifying Kyoto, the Australian Government changed its policy and refused to ratify.

In 2001 Prime Minister John Howard said: "It [the Kyoto Protocol] will cost jobs — it will cost the jobs of unionist and non-unionists alike — and it will do very great damage to the resource sector of Australia, which is not in the national interests of this country."

Yet in 2003 Mr Howard said "Australia is on track to achieve its target of limited greenhouse emissions to 108% of 1990 emissions over the period 2008-2012, as agreed to at Kyoto."

So, if we're meeting our targets, in a booming economy with record low unemployment, how can ratifying Kyoto be bad for the economy and bad for jobs?

The Australian Greenhouse Office, projected that Australia's climate change pollution from energy generation (our biggest source of climate change pollution) will increase to 146% of 1990 levels, and industrial greenhouse emissions to 153% by 2012. This increase in climate change pollution highlights that Australia is not taking action on the true causes of climate change.

For information on Australia’s performance relative to Kyoto targets see “Tracking to the Kyoto Target 2005” (link to: http://www.greenhouse.gov.au/projections/pubs/tracking2005.pdf)

What happens post 2012?

The first set of targets for greenhouse gas reductions under the Kyoto Protocol are for the years 2008 – 2012 (the first commitment period).

After 2012 comes the “second commitment period”, covering the years 2013 – 2017. At the next international climate negotiations Conference of Parties / Meeting of Parties in Nairobi 6-17 November 2006 (http://unfccc.int/meetings/cop_12/items/3754.php) negotiations will continue on the next commitment period for the Kyoto Protocol. Australia and the US are locked out of the negotiation for the Kyoto Protocol second commitment period, as they haven't ratified.

Important decisions include the length of time that the second commitment period will cover, and the greenhouse gas emission reductions that need to be delivered during this period. More information can be found at http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/2006/awg2/eng/misc02.pdf.

Under the UNFCCC a “dialogue” (link to http://unfccc.int/meetings/dialogue/items/3668.php) was begun at the last international meeting (Montreal Nov/Dec 2005). The US sought, and gained, agreement that this dialogue “will not open any negotiations leading to new commitments.” The Dialogue aims to “exchange experiences and analyse strategic approaches for long-term cooperative action to address climate change”. Hands up anyone who thinks that sounds like a process that will have us taking action to avoid dangerous climate change in the next 10 years! The real negotiations are happening within the Kyoto Protocol.

United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Earth Summit – Beginning of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Rio de Janeiro was the venue for the 1992 United Nations Conference on Development and the Environment. This conference, which became known as the “Earth Summit 92” established two key global conventions: one on protecting biodiversity, and the other Framework Convention on Climate Change, now referred to as UNFCCC. Other key outcomes at the Earth Summit included the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development Principles, and Agenda 21, which made sustainable development a global priority.

For more information on the Rio Earth Summit, and also on the World Summit on Sustainable Development (also known as the WSSD, Earth Summit III or Rio +10), held in Johannesburg 2002, visit http://www.earthsummit.info.

Overview of UNFCCC

The Framework Convention established several key points that were used as the foundation for future action on climate change. For example, the UNFCCC:

acknowledged that climate change was real and caused by human activities such as land use changes (deforestation) and burning of fossil fuels

adopted the Precautionary Principle – that a lack of scientific certainty should not be used as an excuse for inaction

committed Parties to the United Nations to action on stabilising greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere through two key approaches: mitigation and adaptation.

Under the UNFCCC “mitigation” refers to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. “Adaptation” refers to taking action to adapt to climate change, such as through drought-resistant cropping, higher sea-walls and removing dwellings from enlarged flood plains.

Nearly all human activity will be affected in some fashion by climate change. It will be harder for poorer countries to adapt than the wealthy industrialised nations. This creates an obligation for richer nations to help those countries that will be hardest hit by climate change.

For more information on UNFCCC see “A planetary Citizen’s Guide to the Global Climate Negotiations” and for more technical information see the UNFCCC website www.unfccc.int

Council of Parties (COP)

The UNFCCC entered into force in March 1994 after being formally approved by over 100 countries, including all developed countries. Once the Framework became legally binding, a process called Council of Parties (COP) was established. The purpose of the COPs was to negotiate responsibilities for action on climate change as part of the governance of the Framework. In fact it was the third COP, held in 1997 in Kyoto, where the Kyoto Protocol was negotiated. Now the Kyoto Protocol also has its own structure of governance, called the Meeting of Parties (MOP). The combined international meetings on climate change are now referred to as COP/MOPs. COP 12 and COP/MOP 2 are being held in Nairobi Kenya, 6-14 November 2006.

For more information on COP 12 and COP/MOP2 visit http://www.iisd.ca/climate/cop12

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

The UNFCCC relies on an expert group of scientists, known as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The IPCC was established by the World Meteorological Organisation and the United Nations Environment Programme to assess information related to climate change, its potential impacts and options for mitigation and adaptation.

The IPCC website contains an abundance of technical information on climate change and can be accessed at http://www.ipcc.ch.