A
1. What causes global warming?
2. Is the earth really getting hotter? Is the climate changing?
3. How do we know that humans are the major cause of global warming?
4. Why does CO2 get most of the attention when there are so many other heat-trapping gases (greenhouse gases)?
5. Does air pollution – specifically particulate matter (aerosols) – affect global warming?
B
1. How does the sun affect our climate?
2. Is there a connection between the hole in the ozone layer and global warming?
3. What is the best source of scientific information on global warming?
4. Will responding to global warming be harmful to our economy?
5. What are the options for the vast stores of coal around the world?
C
1. Is global warming already happening?
2. Are warmer temperatures causing bad things to happen?
3. Is there really cause for serious concern?
4. How can we cut global warming pollution?
5. Do we need new laws requiring industry to cut emissions of global warming pollution?
Text 3
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol
Word List
| TheмUnitedмNationsмFramework ConventionмonмClimateмChange (UNFCCC or FCCC) | рамочнаямконвенциямООНмоб изменении климата (РКИК ООН) |
| United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) | конференциямОрганизации ОбъединенныхмНациймпо окружающей среде и развитию (ЮНСЕД, или Встреча на высшем уровне «Планета Земля») |
| the Earth Summit | встреча на высшем уровне «Планета Земля» |
| anthropogenic interference | антропогенное вмешательство |
| Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee | межправительственный комитет по ведению переговоров |
| national greenhouse gas inventories | национальные кадастры парниковых газов |
| Conferences of the Parties (COP) | Конференции Сторон (КС) |
| greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions | выбросы парниковых газов (ПГ) |
| Marrakesh Accords | Марракешские соглашения |
| еmissions trading (cap-and-trade) | торговля квотами на выброс парниковых газов |
| the carbon market | углеродный рынок |
| Clean development mechanism (CDM) | механизм чистого развития (МЧР) |
| Joint implementation (JI) | совместное осуществление (СО) |
| international transaction log | международная регистрация операций и сделок |
| compliance system | система надзора за соблюдением (правил, договоренностей) |
| Annex I countries | страны, включенные в приложение I (к рамочной конвенции ООН по изменению климата) |
| carbon capture and storage (CCS) | улавливания и хранения углерода (CCS) |
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC or FCCC) is an international environmental treaty produced at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), informally known as the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 to 14 June 1992. The objective of the treaty is to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.
The treaty itself sets no mandatory limits on greenhouse gas emissions for individual countries and contains no enforcement mechanisms. In that sense, the treaty is considered legally non-binding. Instead, the treaty provides for updates (called “protocols”) that would set mandatory emission limits. The principal update is the Kyoto Protocol, which has become much better known than the UNFCCC itself.
The UNFCCC was opened for signature on May 9, 1992, after an Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee produced the text of the Framework Convention as a report following its meeting in New York from April 30 to
May 9, 1992. It entered into force on March 21, 1994. As of December 2009, UNFCCC had 192 parties.
One of its first tasks was to establish national greenhouse gas inventories of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and removals, which were used to create the 1990 benchmark levels for accession of Annex I countries to the Kyoto Protocol and for the commitment of those countries to GHG reductions. Updated inventories must be regularly submitted by Annex I countries.
The parties to the convention have met annually from 1995 in Conferences of the Parties (COP) to assess progress in dealing with climate change. In 1997, the Kyoto Protocol was concluded and established legally binding obligations for developed countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The major feature of the Kyoto Protocol is that it sets binding targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European community for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These amount to an average of five per cent against 1990 levels over the five-year period 2008-2012.
The major distinction between the Protocol and the Convention is that while the Convention encouraged industrialised countries to stabilize GHG emissions, the Protocol commits them to do so. Recognizing that developed countries are principally responsible for the current high levels of GHG emissions in the atmosphere as a result of more than 150 years of industrial activity, the Protocol places a heavier burden on developed nations under the principle of “common but differentiated responsibilities”.
184 Parties of the Convention have ratified its Protocol to date. The detailed rules for the implementation of the Protocol were adopted in Marrakesh in 2001, and are called the “Marrakesh Accords”.
Marrakesh Accords
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"
· Clean development mechanism (CDM)
· Joint implementation (JI).
The mechanisms help stimulate green investment and help Parties meet their emission targets in a cost-effective way.