Legal Aspects of Business

Global Warming: Kyoto Protocol

& Beyond

Submitted to: Dr. K.L. Chawla Submitted By:

FMG18-C

Ankush Verma 91125

Madhur Chawla 91140

Anupama Talwar 91141

Simranjit Singh 91159

Gunashrit Nag 91168

Claire Crouan F20101

Table of Contents
Effects of Global warming......................................................................................................................3
Spread of disease...............................................................................................................................3
Warmer waters and more hurricanes................................................................................................4
Increased probability and intensity of droughts and heat waves......................................................4
Economic consequences....................................................................................................................4
Polar ice caps melting........................................................................................................................4
Kyoto Protocol.......................................................................................................................................5
The Kyoto mechanisms......................................................................................................................5
Emissions trading – known as “the carbon market"..........................................................................5
Clean development mechanism (CDM).............................................................................................5
Joint implementation (JI)...................................................................................................................6
Adaptation.........................................................................................................................................6
Emissions...........................................................................................................................................7
Top-ten emitters................................................................................................................................8
Monitoring emission targets..............................................................................................................9
Financial commitments.....................................................................................................................9
Revisions............................................................................................................................................9
Post Kyoto-Protocol negotiations........................................................................................................10
The role of the private sector..........................................................................................................11
Transferring Technology..................................................................................................................12
INDIA AND KYOTO...............................................................................................................................13
FRANCE TAKE ON KYOTO.....................................................................................................................15
About Kyoto protocol in France.......................................................................................................16
France through European Union.....................................................................................................16
Limits...............................................................................................................................................19
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................20
References...........................................................................................................................................21

2|Page Global Warming: Kyoto Protocol & Beyond Legal Aspects of Business
Simran add ur part here

Effects of Global warming

Over the last hundred years or so, the instrumental temperature record has shown a trend in
climate of increased global mean temperature, i.e., global warming. Global average
temperature is predicted to increase over this century, with a probable increase in frequency
of some extreme weather events, and changes in rainfall patterns. Moving from global to
regional scales, there is increased uncertainty over how climate will change. The probability
of warming having unforeseen consequences increases with the rate, magnitude, and
duration of climate change. Some of the physical impacts of climate change are irreversible
at continental and global scales. With medium confidence, IPCC (2007b:17) concluded that
with a global average temperature increase of 1–4°C, (relative to 1990–2000) partial
deglaciation of the Greenland ice sheet would occur over a period of centuries to millennia.
Including the possible contribution of partial deglaciation of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet,
sea level would rise by 4–6 m or more.
The impacts of climate change across world population will not be distributed evenly
(Smith et al., 2001:957).  Some regions and sectors are expected to experience benefits while
others will experience costs. With greater levels of warming (greater than 2–3°C by 2100,
relative to 1990 temperature levels), it is very likely that benefits will decline and costs
increase. Low-latitude and less-developed areas are probably at the greatest risk from
climate change (Schneider et al.., 2007:781).  With human systems, adaptation potential for
climate change impacts is considerable, although the costs of adaptation are largely
unknown and potentially large.
There are number of harmful effects associated with global warming, but majorly it can be
divided into five deadliest effects. Green house gases stay can stay in the atmosphere for an
amount of years ranging from decades to hundreds and thousands of years. No matter what
we do, global warming is going to have some effect on Earth.
Here are the 5 deadliest effects of global warming.

3|Page Global Warming: Kyoto Protocol & Beyond Legal Aspects of Business
 Spread of disease  As northern countries warm, disease carrying insects migrate north,
bringing plague and disease with them. Indeed some scientists believe that in some countries
thanks to global warming, malaria has not been fully eradicated.
 Warmer waters and more hurricanes   As the temperature of oceans rises, so will
the probability of more frequent and stronger hurricanes. We saw in this in 2004 and 2005.
 Increased probability and intensity of droughts and heat waves   Although
some areas of Earth will become wetter due to global warming, other areas will suffer
serious droughts and heat waves. Africa will receive the worst of it, with more severe
droughts also expected in Europe. Water is already a dangerously rare commodity in Africa,
and according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, global warming will
exacerbate the conditions and could lead to conflicts and war.
 Economic consequences  Most of the effects of anthropogenic global warming won’t
be good. And these effects spell one thing for the countries of the world: economic
consequences. Hurricanes cause do billions of dollars in damage, diseases cost money to
treat and control and conflicts exacerbate all of these.

 Polar ice caps melting The ice caps melting is a four-pronged danger.

o First, it will raise sea levels. There are 5,773,000 cubic miles of water in ice caps, glaciers,
and permanent snow. According to the National Snow and Ice Data Center, if all glaciers
melted today the seas would rise about 230 feet. Luckily, that’s not going to happen all in
one go! But sea levels will rise.
o Second, melting ice caps will throw the global ecosystem out of balance. The ice caps are
fresh water, and when they melt they will desalinate the ocean, or in plain English - make it
less salty. The desalinization of the gulf current will "screw up" ocean currents, which
regulate temperatures. The stream shutdown or irregularity would cool the area around
north-east America and Western Europe. Luckily, that will slow some of the other effects
of global warming in that area!
o Third, temperature rises and changing landscapes in the artic circle will endanger several
species of animals. Only the most adaptable will survive.
o Fourth, global warming could snowball with the ice caps gone. Ice caps are white, and
reflect sunlight, much of which is relected back into space, further cooling Earth. If the ice
caps melt, the only reflector is the ocean. Darker colors absorb sunlight, further warming the
Earth.
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Kyoto Protocol

The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on 11 December 1997 and entered
into force on 16 February 2005. The detailed rules for the implementation of the
Protocol were adopted at COP 7 in Marrakesh in 2001, and are called the “Marrakesh
Accords.” As of July 2010, 191 states have signed and ratified the protocol

The Kyoto mechanisms

Under the Treaty, countries must meet their targets primarily through national measures.
However, the Kyoto Protocol offers them an additional means of meeting their targets by
way of three market-based mechanisms.
The Kyoto mechanisms are:

Emissions trading – known as “the carbon market" 

Greenhouse gas emissions – a new commodity

Parties with commitments under the Kyoto Protocol (Annex B Parties) have accepted
targets for limiting or reducing emissions. These targets are expressed as levels of allowed
emissions, or “assigned amounts,” over the 2008-2012 commitment period. The allowed
emissions are divided into “assigned amount units” (AAUs).
Emissions trading, as set out in Article 17 of the Kyoto Protocol, allows countries that have
emission units to spare - emissions permitted them but not "used" - to sell this excess
capacity to countries that are over their targets.
Thus, a new commodity was created in the form of emission reductions or removals. Since
carbon dioxide is the principal greenhouse gas, people speak simply of trading in carbon.
Carbon is now tracked and traded like any other commodity. This is known as the "carbon
market."

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Clean development mechanism (CDM)

The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), defined in Article 12 of the Protocol, allows a
country with an emission-reduction or emission-limitation commitment under the Kyoto
Protocol (Annex B Party) to implement an emission-reduction project in developing
countries. Such projects can earn saleable certified emission reduction (CER) credits, each
equivalent to one tonne of CO2, which can be counted towards meeting Kyoto targets.
The mechanism is seen by many as a trailblazer. It is the first global, environmental
investment and credit scheme of its kind, providing a standardized emissions offset
instrument, CERs.
A CDM project activity might involve, for example, a rural electrification project using solar
panels or the installation of more energy-efficient boilers.
The mechanism stimulates sustainable development and emission reductions, while giving
industrialized countries some flexibility in how they meet their emission reduction or
limitation targets.

Joint implementation (JI).

The mechanism known as “joint implementation,” defined in Article 6 of the Kyoto

Protocol, allows a country with an emission reduction or limitation commitment under the
Kyoto Protocol (Annex B Party) to earn emission reduction units (ERUs) from an emission-
reduction or emission removal project in another Annex B Party, each equivalent to one
tonne of CO2, which can be counted towards meeting its Kyoto target.
Joint implementation offers Parties a flexible and cost-efficient means of fulfilling a part of
their Kyoto commitments, while the host Party benefits from foreign investment and
technology transfer.

The mechanisms help stimulate green investment and help Parties meet their emission
targets in a cost-effective way.

Adaptation

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The Kyoto Protocol, like the Convention, is also designed to assist countries in adapting to
the adverse effects of climate change. It facilitates the development and deployment of
techniques that can help increase resilience to the impacts of climate change.
The Adaptation Fund was established to finance adaptation projects and programmes in
developing countries that are Parties to the Kyoto Protocol. The Fund is financed mainly
with a share of proceeds from CDM project activities.
The Kyoto Protocol is generally seen as an important first step towards a truly global
emission reduction regime that will stabilize GHG emissions, and provides the essential
architecture for any future international agreement on climate change.
By the end of the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol in 2012, a new
international framework needs to have been negotiated and ratified that can deliver the
stringent emission reductions the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has
clearly indicated are needed.

Emissions

Per-capita emissions are a country's total emissions divided by its population (Banuri et al..,
1996, p. 95). Per-capita emissions in the industrialized countries are typically as much as ten
times the average in developing countries (Grubb, 2003, p. 144). This is one reason
industrialized countries accepted responsibility for leading climate change efforts in the
Kyoto negotiations. In Kyoto, the countries that took on quantified commitments for the first
period (2008–12) corresponded roughly to those with per-capita emissions in 1990 of two
tonnes of carbon or higher. In 2005, the top-20 emitters comprised 80% of total GHG
emissions (PBL, 2010. See also the notes in the following section on the top-ten emitters in
2005). Countries with a Kyoto target made up 20% of total GHG emissions.
Another way of measuring GHG emissions is to measure the total emissions that have
accumulated in the atmosphere over time (IEA, 2007, p. 199). Over a long time period,
cumulative emissions provide an indication of a country's total contribution to GHG
concentrations in the atmosphere. Over the 1900-2005 period, the US was the world's largest
cumulative emitter of energy-related CO2 emissions, and accounted for 30% of total
cumulative emissions (IEA, 2007, p. 201). The second largest emitter was the EU, at 23%;
the third largest was China, at 8%; fourth was Japan, at 4%; fifth was India, at 2%. The rest
of the world accounted for 33% of global, cumulative, energy-related CO2 emissions.
7 | P a g e Global Warming: Kyoto Protocol & Beyond Legal Aspects of Business
 Top-ten emitters

What follows is a ranking of the world's top ten emitters of GHGs for 2005 (MNP, 2007).
The first figure is the country's or region's emissions as a percentage of the global total. The
second figure is the country's/region's per-capita emissions, in units of tons of GHG per-
capita:
1. China – 17%, 5.8
2. United States – 16%, 24.1
3. European Union-27 – 11%, 10.6
4. Indonesia - 6%, 12.9
5. India – 5%, 2.1
6. Russia – 5%, 14.9
7. Brazil – 4%, 10.0
8. Japan – 3%, 10.6
9. Canada – 2%, 23.2
10. Mexico – 2%, 6.4
Notes
 These values are for the GHG emissions from fossil fuel use and cement production.
Calculations are for carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and gases
containing fluorine (the F-gases HFCs, PFCs and SF6).
 These estimates are subject to large uncertainties regarding CO2 emissions from
deforestation; and the per country emissions of other GHGs (e.g., methane). There are also
other large uncertainties which mean that small differences between countries are not
significant. CO2 emissions from the decay of remaining biomass after biomass
burning/deforestation are not included.
 excluding underground fires.
 including an estimate of 2000 million tonnes CO2 from peat fires and decomposition
of peat soils after draining. However, the uncertainty range is very large.
 Industrialised countries: official country data reported to UNFCCC

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Monitoring emission targets

Under the Protocol, countries’actual emissions have to be monitored and precise records
have to be kept of the trades carried out.
Registry systems track and record transactions by Parties under the mechanisms. The UN
Climate Change Secretariat, based in Bonn, Germany, keeps an international transaction
log to verify that transactions are consistent with the rules of the Protocol.
Reporting is done by Parties by way of submitting annual emission inventories and national
reports under the Protocol at regular intervals.
A compliance system ensures that Parties are meeting their commitments and helps them to
meet their commitments if they have problems doing so.

Financial commitments

The Protocol also reaffirms the principle that developed countries have to pay billions of
dollars, and supply technology to other countries for climate-related studies and projects.
The principle was originally agreed in UNFCCC.

Revisions

The protocol left several issues open to be decided later by the sixth Conference of Parties
(COP). COP6 attempted to resolve these issues at its meeting in the Hague in late 2000, but
was unable to reach an agreement due to disputes between the European Union on the one
hand (which favoured a tougher agreement) and the United States, Canada, Japan and
Australia on the other (which wanted the agreement to be less demanding and more
flexible).
In 2001, a continuation of the previous meeting (COP6bis) was held in Bonn where the
required decisions were adopted. After some concessions, the supporters of the protocol (led
by the European Union) managed to get Japan and Russia in as well by allowing more use
of carbon dioxide sinks.
COP7 was held from 29 October 2001 through 9 November 2001 in Marrakech to establish
the final details of the protocol.

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 The first Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (MOP1) was held in Montreal from 28
November to 9 December 2005, along with the 11th conference of the Parties to the
UNFCCC (COP11). See United Nations Climate Change Conference.
The 3 December 2007, Australia ratified the protocol during the first day of the COP13 in
Bali. Of the signatories, 36 developed C.G. countries (plus the EU as a party in the European
Union)agreed to a 10% emissions increase for Iceland; but, since the EU's member states
each have individual obligations, much larger increases (up to 27%) are allowed for some of
the less developed EU countries. Reduction limitations expire in 2013.

Enforcement
If the enforcement branch determines that an annex I country is not in compliance with its
emissions limitation, then that country is required to make up the difference plus an
additional 30%. In addition, that country will be suspended from making transfers under an
emissions trading program

Post Kyoto-Protocol negotiations

In the non-binding 'Washington Declaration' agreed on 16 February 2007, Heads of

governments from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, United Kingdom,
the United States,Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa agreed in principle on the
outline of a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. They envisage a global cap-and-trade system
that would apply to both industrialized nations and developing countries, and hoped that this
would be in place by 2009.
On 7 June 2007, leaders at the 33rd G8 summit agreed that the G8 nations would "aim to at
least halve global CO2 emissions by 2050". The details enabling this to be achieved would
be negotiated by environment ministers within the United Nations Framework Convention
on Climate Change in a process that would also include the major emerging economies.
A round of climate change talks under the auspices of the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) (Vienna Climate Change Talks 2007) concluded
in 31 August 2007 with agreement on key elements for an effective international response to
climate change.
A key feature of the talks was a United Nations report that showed how efficient energy
use could yield significant cuts in emissions at low cost.

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The talks were meant to set the stage for a major international meeting to be held in Nusa
Dua, Bali, which started on 3 December 2007.
The Conference was held in December 2008 in Poznań, Poland. One of the main topics on
this meeting was the discussion of a possible implementation of avoided deforestation also
known as Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) into the
future Kyoto Protocol.
There was lack of progress leading to a binding commitment or an extension of the Kyoto
commitment period in climate talks at COP 15 in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2009.
Despite several further rounds of negotiation COP 16 in Cancun, Mexico in 2010, not much
progress was made. Further negotiations will be held in South Africa in 2011 (COP 17), and
in Qatar or South Korea in 2012 (COP 18). Because any treaty change will require the
ratification of the text by various countries' legislatures before the end of the commitment
period Dec 31, 2012, it is likely that agreements in South Africa or South Korea/Qatar will
be too late to prevent a gap between the commitment periods.

The role of the private sector

Given the decline in ODA, much emphasis is placed on the importance of private transfers
to developing countries in making up for gaps in public financing. It is difficult to over-state
the importance of the private sector in proposals to address climate change. As the Business
Council for Sustainable Development on climate change and publicising the benefits
achieved by existing leaders in the field. Some firms such as BP and Shell have gone so far
as to establish their own intra-firm trading systems which encourage competitive reductions
between different parts of the firm.31 This carries benefits such as saving money through
reduced use of energy, first-mover advantages that come from developing new technologies
and production processes to meet the targets and public and employee credibility from being
seen as an environmentally-responsible company.32 Companies have also been keen
participants in schemes such as the Chicago Climate Exchange, the European Emissions
Trading Scheme, the Carbon Disclosure Project and discussions about a possible Carbon
Certification Council to oversee a labelling scheme aimed at consumers emulating existing
schemes in the forestry and fisheries sectors. The fragile alliance between sections of the
financial community and environmentalists seeking to advance action on climate change
provides one example of the type of political coalition that will be necessary to carry
reforms forward. It also underlines the point that many of the key changes necessary to fund
11 | P a g e Global Warming: Kyoto Protocol & Beyond Legal Aspects of Business
 climate protection and deter activities that accelerate climate change, will come not from
more international cooperation alone, but from changes in industry itself and in this case
from pressure from stakeholders with a clear self-interest in promoting action.

Many of the changes in company policy are consumer-driven and we should not under-
estimate the importance of consumer choice and consumer pressure in driving private sector
action on climate change. On one level, consumers themselves have to internalise the
externalities that they impose on the environment through their consumer choices. One way
they can internalise those externalities is by supporting markets for climate-benign products
and refusing to purchase goods and services which imply a heavy impact on the climate, as
well as changing their own patterns of consumption in relation to energy use, transportation
and the like. Many NGOs have sought to supplement government efforts to persuade
consumers to use energy more efficiently by providing booklets and other information
materials on how savings can be made from changing simple household practices.
Development NGOs such as Christian Aid in the UK have also launched campaigns making
people aware of the difference small changes in their consumption of energy can make to
people in the South. In a more confrontational manner some groups have also organised
boycotts of firms that continue to oppose the Kyoto Protocol, encouraging consumers to use
their purchasing power to register their disapproval with companies’ obstruction of
international action on climate change.

Transferring Technology

Technology clearly has a key role to play in mitigation and adaptation to climate change.
There has been concern that climate change does not become the latest policy arena in which
to repeat previous mistakes in development policy about the inappropriate transfer of
technology as aid to the global South. Concerns about subsidies to flailing technology
sectors whose applications are inappropriate to local Southern contexts for which they were
not designed, the use of conditionalities and tied aid which requires recipients to purchase
the technology from the donor have all re-surfaced as legitimate concerns expressed by
developing countries in the climate change debate. Much of the controversy has also centred
on the Global Environment Facility set up to oversee North-South transfers of environmental
aid. Its close ties to the World Bank to whom it is chiefly accountable has been a particular
source of concern for many developing countries.

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 Alongside the use of technologies intended to bring about a degree of leap-frogging to a
more sustainable energy path, there have been calls to develop spectacular technofixes to the
problem of climate change. Designed to avoid having to take politically sensitive action to
mitigate emissions, such grand designs include filling the oceans with iron fillings to
increase the rate at which they absorb CO2 or the use of huge mirrors placed in the
atmosphere to deflect the suns rays. Given the numerous issues about the plausibility and
desirability of such global techno-fixes.

INDIA AND KYOTO

It has been observed that India resist pressure to go beyond the Kyoto Protocol. India
opposed the amendment to the Kyoto Protocol at the Copenhagen Climate meet. The new
amendment pushed for an agreement that was broader than 1997 treaty and puts more
pressure on developing countries for cutting the carbon emission.

The tiny Pacific island of Tuvalu raised the proposal of adding another protocol to the Kyoto
Protocol. Developing nations mainly India, China, South Africa and Brazil are, however,
sticking to a one protocol approach.

India’s focus is on heightened implementation of the convention. The spotlight is on existing

Commitment and not to enter into new commitments.

Tuvalu is a small island where people live two meters above sea level, and it could be
swamped by rising sea levels. Tuvalu's representative Ian Fry requested the minister of the
Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, Connie Hedegaard to immediately form a contact
group to consider the proposal for a new protocol that calls for vigorous action such as:

 Binding cuts
 Putting less than 1.5 degree limit in warming by developed countries and emerging
economies

Developing nations (India and China) and oil producing states including Saudi Arabia
opposed it on the ground that there should not be any detraction from Kyoto Protocol, the

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 treaty that imposes legally binding sanctions on industrialized nations, excluding the US.

India and other nations suspect that Europe's support for a new protocol is also an attempt to
Weaken the Kyoto Protocol.

According to the India’s environment secretary Vijay Sharma, several provisions in the draft
are inconsistent and obviously in conflict with the convention provisions pertinent to
historical responsibility and equity. Also there are articles bracketing the Annex 1 and non-
Annex countries and allows Annex 1 to abandon Kyoto, which is not the right message to
Give at this point of time.
The Kyoto Protocol sets binding targets for 37 industrialized countries, called Annex 1
countries, for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to an average of 5% against 1990 levels
between 2008-2012. However, Tuvalu and Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) have
said here that the Copenhagen summit needs to produce a document much stronger than the
Kyoto Protocol that neither puts obligations on US nor on emerging economies.

A major portion of this conference is to extend the Kyoto Protocol into its second
commitment period starting from 2013 where developed countries have to make cuts will be
listed in Annex B, which is a top priority for India and China at this climate meet.

But recently India agreed for the binding commitments, international review of its domestic
mitigation commitments once in two years and to have low carbon growth in the context of
sustainable growth, in a proposal submitted for adoption at Cancun climate summit of 194
nations saying new agreement will be signed in Durban, South Africa in 2011.

This agreement has brought in mixed reactions from the different people in the fraternity,
according to some it is a balanced agreement in the spirit of constructive compromise
whereas according to others India has given fatal concessions to the United States without
getting anything in return and failed to protect the interest of our poor.

This Long term cooperative action (LCA) draft speaks about the aim to restrict the
temperature rise by two degrees Celsius by 2050 without providing a formula for achieving
the same.

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 The package aims at unquantified reduction in emissions by 2050, a dilution of the
Copenhagen Accord and provides a mechanism on technology transfer, protecting forests
and indigenous people. There is no mention of Intellectual Property Rights in the draft. It
also aims at creating two green funds -- one for adaptation and another for finance.

FRANCE TAKE ON KYOTO

To respect their commitments in conformance with the Kyoto protocol, industrial nations
have to set up national programs of fight against climate change in branches of industry so
diverse as the residential, the Tertiary sector, the transport, the agriculture, the forestry, the
energy and the waste.

Which national program?

Before the Kyoto protocol, France had already taken the measures to reduce its greenhouse
gas emissions which limited themselves to the horizon 2000. By signing this Protocol and its
commitments, new measures have been organized to stabilize the emissions of France in
2010 with regard to their level of 1990.
Thus France set up a National Plan of Fight against climate change (Plan National de Lutte
contre le Changement Climatique (PNLCC) in French) in 2000. This last one was replaced
by the Plan Climate in 2004 which groups together actions in all the branches of industry to
stabilize emissions in 2010 at their level of 1990.
With the Grenelle de l’Environnement, launched in 2007 by President Sarkozy and driven
by French Minister Borloo, France has drawn a consensus between stakeholders and with
civil society to further green its economy. As a result, laws have been adopted and will soon
be enforced with a specific emphasis on reducing carbon emissions (green building,
emission from car, renewable energy objective, public transportation, carbon tax…)
France wishes, on the longest term, to divide by 4 its emissions before 2050. Considering the
economic growth of France and increase of the energy needs, drastic measures must be
again taken to reach this objective.

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About Kyoto protocol in France

The protocol was signed in 29 April 1998 (signature alone is symbolic; a token gesture of
support)
The ratification was done in 31 May 2002 (ratification carries legal obligations and
effectively becomes a contractual arrangement)

France through European Union

France set within the framework of its policy of fight against the change Climatic, various
commitments of reduction of its greenhouse gas emissions in the horizon 2010. So France is
bound by two objectives:

- A collective of reduction of its 8 % greenhouse gas emissions with regard to the

levels of 1990 during the first "period of commitment» (2008-2012) with its partners of the
European Union (" European bubble ")
- And an individual commitment to stabilize its emissions, who owes, in 2012, will be
the same that in 1990

According to the "agreement of sharing of the load" which became legally binding for
Member states when the European Union ratified the Kyoto protocol (decision 2002 / 358 /
CE of the Council of April 25th, 2002), this objective of 8 % is shared between 15 Member
states.

This objective can be negative (-21 % for Germany), null (0 % for France) or positive (15 %
for Spain). Other countries of the European Union 25 have each other assigned an objectives
of 6 % reduction or 8 %, with the exception of Cyprus and of Malta to which no objective
was fixed.

In view of its high level, but by comparison lower of emissions than the other European
countries, due to in particular of its use of the nuclear power rather than to the oil or to the

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 coal for the electricity production, France has attributing a national objective of
stabilization of its emissions between 1990 and 2010.

Source: France 2008, La Documentation française

The European Union has undertaken to cut its emissions by 8%. France and Finland are the
only EU countries required to stabilise emissions.

Current situation of France towards its stakes and in its commitments

First is important to know that France is already one of the most sober industrialized savings
in carbon, with emissions per capita lower than 25 % in the European average and lower
than 30 to 40 % to those of its neighbors in the world.

17 | P a g e Global Warming: Kyoto Protocol & Beyond Legal Aspects of Business

 According to the figures published by the services of the Ministry of Ecology, Energy, of
Sustainable development and of the sea (MEEDDM in French) show a decline of 10,3 % of
the French greenhouse gas emissions between 1990 and 2009.

Here is a world map showing which are the countries respected their commitments of the
Kyoto protocol in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.

This map, based on the emissions of 2007, shows the good pupils in blue, and the bad in
yellow, pink and red. The figures of the legend represent the distance between the
greenhouse gas emissions of the countries in 2007 with regard to their objective Kyoto, in %
of the emissions of 1990.

France has a good position and respect practically its commitments.

18 | P a g e Global Warming: Kyoto Protocol & Beyond Legal Aspects of Business

Limits

But we have to relativize these figures. In fact the decline of emissions in 2009 is essentially
the product of the economic crisis and corresponds to no effort of structural processing. It
explains by a clear recession of the economic activity, in particular the branches of industry
more extensive in energy.

Furthermore, the stabilization then the decline observed on the emissions of the national
scope hides probably an increase of emissions bound to the national demand via relocated
emissions.

These results knock down the perspective of the conclusions done by the government.
Indeed, supposed sobriety in carbon of France appears to raise more growing recourse to an
outsourcing of its emissions than to a real internal transfer. This question deserves to be
seriously put in debate…

To conclude as we saw previously, in view of the economic growth of France and increase
of the energy needs, drastic measures must be again taken to reach the objective to continue
the decline of gas emissions. This tendency is obviously common to all the nations included
in the protocol.

19 | P a g e Global Warming: Kyoto Protocol & Beyond Legal Aspects of Business

Conclusion

Global average temperature is predicted to increase over this century, with a probable
increase in frequency of some extreme weather events, and changes in rainfall patterns.
Moving from global to regional scales, there is increased uncertainty over how climate will
change. The probability of warming having unforeseen consequences increases with the rate,
magnitude, and duration of climate change. Some of the physical impacts of climate change
are irreversible at continental and global scales.
With such grave dangers being faced by our planet due to global warming various initiatives
have been taken up at a world stage and one of them is the Kyoto Protocol under which As
of July 2010, 191 states have signed and ratified the protocol.

Some of the key aspects of the protocol deal with Emissions trading – known as “the carbon
market", Clean development mechanism (CDM), Joint implementation (JI), Monitoring
emission targets, Financial commitments etc. But even after considering such initiatives
further changes are required to provide key essential tool for sustainable development of the
world as a whole such as The role of the private sector in the same and by providing greater
Transferring Technology amongst the counties to reduce the overall emissions in the world as
a whole by using cleaner technologies. Some recommendation such as moving beyond Kyoto
Protocol have also now being initiated which require stricter regulations and greater control
and thus countries like India whose economy is in the development stage does not want to
strangle its growth and has thus deviated away and resisted in moving beyond the Kyoto
protocol. Thus we can see that after taking into consideration the stance of India and France
with respect to the Kyoto protocol, there is a need to provide mechanism of controlling
emissions of pollution causing particles in such a way that is does not strangulate the
development process and provides a sustainable environment for the same so as to be able to
provide a clean and wealthy environment for the future generations.

20 | P a g e Global Warming: Kyoto Protocol & Beyond Legal Aspects of Business

 References

 http://www.rac-f.org/, visited on 15/12/2010

 Marignac.Y (2010) « Évolution des émissions françaises de gaz à effet de serre : une baisse
en trompe l'oeil » for Greenpeace France
 http://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol/items/2830.php, visited on 16/12/2010
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyoto_Protocol#Objectives, visited on 16/12/2010
 Peter Newell, The Kyoto Protocol and Beyond: The World After 2012, Human Development
Report 2007/2008, Human Development Report Office OCCASIONAL PAPER

21 | P a g e Global Warming: Kyoto Protocol & Beyond Legal Aspects of Business