Kyoto Protocol talks: the main issues
Copyright 2001 Agence France Presse
October 29, 2001
MARRAKESH, Morocco, Oct 29 - Following are the main issues to be wrapped up at talks here to complete the Kyoto Protocol on global warming:
CARBON SINKS
The most arduously-fought arena in the nearly four-year history of Kyoto negotiations.
Sinks are forested and agricultural lands that absorb and stock carbon dioxide (CO2), the main greenhouse gas, through the natural process of photosynthesis. This benefit can be partly offset against national emissions of greenhouse gases, thus reducing the cost of meeting the Kyoto targets. The European Union made big concessions on sinks to Australia, Canada, Japan and Russia in July to save Kyoto from collapse after the United States abandoned the agreement.
Kyoto was weakened by the concessions and environmentalists fear it could be gutted if Russia, which has been demanding further concessions, gets its way.
KYOTO MECHANISMS
Negotiators must agree on the fine print of three key, yet untested, mechanisms that would harness the power of the market in order to reduce carbon pollution. They comprise:
-- emissions trading in CO2 among industrialised signatory countries;
-- joint implementation, the term for emissions-cutting investment projects by industrialised countries in other industrialised countries;
-- the clean-development mechanism, in which industrialised countries can claim emissions credits for emissions-cutting investment projects in developing countries.
A major area of likely conflict is on how to agree common rules for national inventories of greenhouse-gas emissions, to prevent cheating.
COMPLIANCE
Kyoto has ambitious provisions to penalise industrialised countries which fail to honour their commitments, notably setting up a "compliance committee" that would monitor performance and discipline those out of line.
Penalties include a requirement for violators to make up for each excess tonne emitted above their quota in Kyoto's first commitment period, which runs to 2012, by deducting this amount from their allowance in the next commitment period after that date. In addition, the excess tonnage will be multiplied by 30 percent to redress damage caused to the environments.
One of the big rows is whether these penalty clauses would be "legally binding," a term contested by Australia, Canada, Japan and Russia as an infringement of sovereignty.