Overview

More than six years after the December 1997 grand jamboree at Kyoto, when government representatives agreed that internationally sanctioned reductions in carbon dioxide emissions should be adopted by a selected list of industrialised countries, the Kyoto Protocol has not yet come into force. The reason is because, of the listed countries that were required to limit carbon dioxide emissions, a sufficient number of countries necessary to meet the technical requirements of the Protocol had not ratified and lodged the appropriate instruments with the United Nations. The reasons for not ratifying varied between countries but they mainly relate to the envisaged economic impacts. The imposts on industrialised countries for complying, particularly by those countries that do not have a significant nuclear energy base, will increase energy costs and they become less competitive in trade. There is also a view that the Protocol will not be effective unless all countries are committed to constraining greenhouse gas emissions and contribute to meeting the objective of stabilising concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

There are also many sceptics about the science underpinning the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Kyoto Protocol. Criticism has been levelled at various assumptions and conclusions of the IPCC assessment reports but this scepticism has not yet penetrated into any formal government positions. The IPCC continues to be the intergovernmental forum for evaluating climate science and formulating recommendations for related policies at the international level. IPCC issued its Third Assessment Report in 2001 and preparation has...