Global warming affects all kinds of species on the earth. Scientists believe that global warming is caused by many anthropogenic factors such as deforestation, emission of greenhouse gases by industries, burning of fuels etc. This emerging threat compelled the international community and the UN to adopt new rules to protect the earth. One of the rules is Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol is an international system of rules which were passed by the UN in 1997 to minimize the global warming by reducing the emission of the greenhouse gases. After many years, this pact came into effect on 16 February 2005.The Kyoto Protocol was signed by 156 countries categorized as Annex 1(developed countries) and Non- Annex 1 (developing countries) parties. The core objective of this pact lies in Article 3 of Kyoto protocol. Article 3 says that every member country should reduce the emission of overall greenhouse gases by 5.2 percent below the 1990 level, in the first commitment period i.e. 2008-2012. (UNFCCC)
There are three mechanisms to implement Kyoto protocol: (A) Trade in permits to emit greenhouse gases. (B) Joint implementation mechanism. (C) Clean development mechanism. This paper will particularly discuss the negative effects of Clean Development Mechanism projects on developing countries such as India, Venezuela and North America as spurious.
“The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is an arrangement under the Kyoto Protocol allowing industrialized countries (called Annex B countries) with a greenhouse reduction commitment to invest in projects that reduce greenhouse gases emissions in developing countries as an alternative to more expensive greenhouse gas emission reductions in their own countries”. (Envis Newsletters)
The Kyoto protocol is ineffective and insufficient .Many projects working under the CDM do not fulfill the commitment of reduction in the emission of greenhouse gases, and undermine the credibility of Kyoto Treaty by endangering life in many developing countries.
The Kyoto protocol is not sufficient and it is not possible to reduce global warming to a satisfactory level through this pact. Most scientists believe that we need a 50% reduction of current levels of greenhouse gases by 2050 to stabilize world climate. According to Marco, only 5.2% reduction of greenhouse gases would compound to an 8% reduction by the end of this century, i.e., it allows a 92% increase. So at this rate we would not be able to achieve our target and at the end of century we would still be emitting 92 % of greenhouse gases. (UNFCCC).If the emission of greenhouse gases is greater than their reduction then the Kyoto protocol is futile. Thus, we need some other regulations which can produce effective results in the future.
The Kyoto Treaty does not explain its objectives clearly. There is no proper mechanism to implement this so that the objectives regarding the Kyoto Protocol can be fully achieved. As the first paragraph of article 3 summarizes, “the parties included in Annex 1 (developed countries) shall individually or jointly, reduce their overall emission of greenhouse gases by at least 5 percent below 1990 level in the commitment period 2008 to 2012” (Grubb et al. 116). On the other side, Tom Clark of channel 4 news (UK) conducted a survey in India and found that most of the projects working under CDM do not reduce carbon emission. For example, Shri Bajran RE project working under CDM is not environment friendly and it is also not following the rules regarding emission of the greenhouse gases. The money from these projects is supposed to be spent on cleaning environment but this does not happen. Most of the developed countries for their cheap investment in projects in the developing countries do not care about pollution. The huge investment in India under the banner of CDM has no use if it is not decreasing the greenhouse gases.UK is investing billions of pounds in numerous Indian projects that only increase pollution. A leading expert in global carbon trading Dr. Mecenova in an interview with channel 4 news (UK) said that “a closer look at the CDM projects in India revealed that the projects do not fulfill their additionality (additional cut in carbon emission) requirement”. (Clean Development in India)
The clean development mechanism is not effective and fruitful. It has other side effects as well. The promotion of monoculture plantation (cultivation of single crop in a large area) under the CDM creates many social and financial problems. The large scale monoculture plantations are not suitable for environment because these monoculture trees decrease the water at basin level, cause acidification, and nutrition depletion. The local population suffers a lot from this implantation. For example in the Portuguesa state of Venezuela, Smurfitt Cartons is dispossessing local peasants of their lands and destroying and replacing riverine forests with eucalyptus, pines and gmelina monocrops. Oil palm plantation companies in Sumatra and Indonesia are occupying local peoples’ lands, which has resulted in civil unrest. Similar situations involving either eucalyptus and/or oil palm plantation are also frequent in Sarawak, Malaysia, where indigenous peoples are being dispossessed of their traditional lands to make way to plantations and are fighting back to defend the lands. (World Rainforest Movement)
Developed countries are the leading emitters of greenhouse gases. The Kyoto Protocol does nothing in pursuing developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emission. On the contrary it further facilitates them economically under CDM. The CDM prevents developed countries from reducing greenhouse gases in the following way. For example the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), defined by the Kyoto Protocol in Article 12 as a form of cooperation between both groups (developing and developed countries), provides a way by which North American countries will be able to comply with their commitments, simply through the establishment of extensive tree monocrops in the South America. According to World Rainforest Movement (WRM) “when a public or private entity of an Annex I (developed countries) invests in a plantation project in the South (developing countries), it is the investing country that will receive emission reduction certification for the project. As a matter of fact this provision, which goes together with the net approach, means that industrialized countries are freed of their responsibility to cut their carbon emissions in a significant way, while the South (developing countries) will offer their territory to projects aimed at capturing them, which will bring negative environmental consequences with them, as tree monocrops do” (WRM). So it is not right that the countries who are historically responsible for global warming would now receive assistance from poor countries.
Rapid growth and industrialization has brought us to a point where our energy needs are increasing day by day. Coal and fossil fuels are the largest sources that fulfill our energy demands but at the cost of greenhouse gases. To reduce the greenhouse gases we should find alternate sources of energy such as wind energy, solar energy, bio energy etc that are environment friendly.
To sum up, developing countries contain 75% of the world’s population, and they emit greenhouse gases. Most of the projects running under the label of CDM cause pollution in developing countries. In fact, it does not matter from which place the pollution comes from; it is added to the atmosphere. Therefore, a better mechanism is needed so that solutions proposed for problems don’t become problem.
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