November 2004
To The Editor
It is not correct, as the Post claims (Kyoto Ratification, Nov. 6), that the Kyoto Protocol is a “mostly symbolic treaty.” The Protocol requires industrialized countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions about 5% below 1990 levels. Because “business as-usual” emissions are projected to rise an additional 15% or so in these countries, however, the real impact of the Protocol, with the United States participating, would be nearly a 20% reduction in industrialized country emissions and a 10% drop in global emissions. That would be a very solid down payment toward solving global warming.
Without the United States, however, the Kyoto Protocol is far less effective. If U.S. emissions continue unabated, the industrialized country improvement from business-as-usual will be less than 6%, and the global improvement less than 3.5%. U.S. inaction also will have the effect of making India, China and other developing countries more wary and less willing to join the Protocol’s emissions control regime. If the Kyoto Protocol turns out to be mostly symbolic, we will have only the United States to blame.
Daniel Magraw
President
Center for International Environmental Law