Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Copenhagen Accord. Its participants politically undertook certain measures
to reduce emissions. The problem after the Copenhagen Conference was
that no one knew whether the Kyoto Protocol would have a next commit-
ment period, how long it could be and how the major actors could be
involved in the climate change regime. There was even uncertainty after
the Copenhagen Conference about whether the regime would continue
under the auspices of the UN. The Cancun Conference again tried to
'rescue' the climate change regime from its crisis. The resulting new
attempt took place in the 2011 Durban Climate Conference; its accom-
plishments will be discussed in
Chapter 7
(see 'Achievements of the Durban
Conference', pp. 201-203).
The success of the ozone regime and the failure of the climate regime
The ozone regime is justly regarded as a success story: it has managed to
contain a global environmental problem through innovative regulation
measures involving the entire international community. There are several
reasons for this. One reason is that the only (at least for now) superpower,
the USA, had begun to control the manufacture and use of CFC compounds
even before the international measures commenced; it applied strong
pressure on other countries to follow suit and limit and eliminate CFC
compounds.
The activity of the United States can be traced to a very clear view within
the scientifi c community that ozone depletion is caused by the use of CFC
compounds and that ozone depletion causes, among other things, skin cancer
in humans. It was also signifi cant that CFC compounds were manufactured by
a relatively small number of companies in a few countries. That was easy
compared with the enormous challenge faced in climate change: nearly all
human activity around the globe has an impact on the climate. The innovative
regulation systems - implementation committee, science mechanism and fl ex-
ible amendment procedures, for example - contribute to the expectation that
the ozone layer will actually recover in a few decades. The ozone regime was
touted as a model for getting climate change under control.
The climate regime itself - and the people who work in its secretariat - is
functioning well. Many legal innovations have been made, within the limits
that states set to the system, of course. Cost-effective ways of mitigating
climate change with fl exible mechanisms are carefully considered and well
justifi ed, and have contributed to the know-how of developing nations and
their knowledge about climate change. Checking that the states report their
ing system and states' awareness as to how widely they are responsible for
climate change. The Kyoto Protocol compliance committee has the greatest
authority to penalize a state that fails to observe the rules - and the compliance
committee was established by a decision of the meeting of the parties only.
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