As the issue of global climate change comes to the fore in international discussions, and as countries attempt to find solutions for climate change, attention frequently turns to the Kyoto Protocol. By June of 2007, 17 countries had signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocols. By 2011, the number of parties to the Kyoto Protocol had risen to 192. Notably absent from the list of countries ratifying the Protocols is the United States which has stated that it will not ratify the Protocols. Although some environmentalists argue that the United States should ratify, the United States is correct to refuse to ratify the Protocols.
The Kyoto Protocols, although well intentioned, is doomed to fail. An analysis of them indicates that they are simply ineffective. Although countries that ratify the Kyoto Protocols agree to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to pre-1990 levels, only 35 countries have agreed to cap their greenhouse gas emissions. Agreeing to a cap is not part of the treaty.
Also, the Protocols exempt developing nations, and instead require developed nations to limit their greenhouse gas emissions. By not requiring developing countries to limit their emissions, those who created the treaty have permitted these countries to continue to pollute at high volumes, thus offsetting any of the efforts taken by developed countries.
What further makes the Kyoto Protocol ineffective is that not only are developing countries excluded but China is counted as a developing country. By not having to reduce its emissions, China will continue to pollute in large quantities, preventing any hope of curbing global emissions.
In addition, it is unfair that China and other developing countries can pollute at will, thus avoiding engaging in costly emission-reduction strategies.
The ability to avoid paying to reduce emissions gives China an unfair advantage on the global market, as it can produce and sell products cheaper than developed countries that need to pay for emissions-reducing technology.
There is another irony in the Kyoto Protocols that China helps to exemplify. If developed nations lower their demand for fossil fuels in an attempt to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, this reduction will lower the price of fossil fuels. As fossil fuels become cheaper, developing countries, especially China, will increase their use of cheap fossil fuels, which will produce even more greenhouse gases.
Exempting China means the Protocols cannot work.
But the main reason the U.S. shouldn’t ratify the treaty is that we don’t need to. In 2012, the U.S.
became the first industrialized nation to meet the original 2012 target for CO2 reductions. Signatories to the agreement are now being asked to commit to a new goal, to reduce GHG emissions by at least 18 percent below 1990 levels in the eight-year period from 2013 to 2020, If past behavior is a good predictor of future behavior, we don’t need to ratify any treaty; we’ll most likely continue reducing our emissions and meet this goal too. The United States’ current efforts are more than enough to try to address the problem of global climate change, thus making ratifying the Kyoto Protocols wholly unnecessary.
1. What are the issue and conclusion in this essay?
2. Does the argument contain significant ambiguity in the reasoning?
Clue: What word or phrases could have multiplemeanings?
3. Ask and answer the critical thinking question that you believe reveals the main problem with the author’s reasoning in this essay. Explain why the question you asked is particularly harmful to the author’s argument.