The Greenhouse Effect and Global Warming - Air Pollution and Global Warming: History, Science, and Solutions - page 302

China (mainland)

United States

India

Russian Federation

Japan

Germany

Canada

United Kingdom

South Korea

Iran

Mexico

Italy

South Africa

Saudi Arabia

Indonesia

Australia

France

0 5 10 15 20

Figure 12.32. National emissions (brown, hundred-million tonnes-C/yr) and per capita emissions (green,
tonnes-C/person/yr) of carbon (C) in carbon dioxide in 2007 from the top seventeen countries in terms of total
emissions. Data from Boden et al. (2011).

Unlike regulations addressing urban air pollution,
acid rain, and global ozone loss, regulations addressing
global warming have been relatively weak. Worldwide,
vehicle emission standards for CO(g), BC, and ozone
precursors (e.g., Table 8.1) based on health grounds
have unintentionally but fortuitously reduced some of
the pollution causing global warming. Also, CAF E
standards (Section 8.1.8) in the United States have
indirectly reduced some carbon dioxide emissions from
the transportation sector.
U.S. federal tax code incentives since the late
1970s for the development of renewable energy and
improvements in energy efficiency have also indirectly
addressed the issue. Other renewable energy incentives,
such as the feed-in-tariff (Section 13.10) in Germany
and approximately thirty other countries starting in
2000, similarly provided a small benefit. Nevertheless,
simultaneous tax incentives have existed for the devel-
opment of fossil fuel energy sources in many countries.
In the 1980s, tax incentives for clean energy sources in
the United States were severely reduced, whereas those
for fossil fuels were enhanced.
Although all countries tax fuels to some extent, Den-
mark, the Netherlands, Finland, Norway, and Sweden
specifically implemented carbon taxes on fuel in the
mid-1990s. Denmark taxed all carbon dioxide emis-
sion sources, except gasoline, natural gas, and bio-
fuels. The Netherlands taxed all energy sources used

as fuel, and Finland taxed all fossil fuels. Norway
taxed mineral oil, gasoline, gas burned in marine oil
fields, coal, and coke. Sweden taxed oil, kerosene, nat-
ural gas, coal, coke, and other sources. Nevertheless,
these efforts have done little to stop the rapid growth
in greenhouse gas and particle black carbon emissions
worldwide.
12.6.2. The Kyoto Protocol
On May 9, 1992, an international agreement addressing
global warming, hashed out in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil,
was adopted at the United Nations. The agreement, the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate
Change , called on signatory nations to develop cur-
rent and projected emission inventories for greenhouse
gases, devise policies (to be implemented at a later
meeting) for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and
promote technologies for reducing emissions. By 1994,
184 nations had signed the agreement, and most had
ratified it. In 1995, the nations involved in the con-
vention met in Berlin, Germany, to discuss details of
the proposed policies and target dates for implementing
them.
In December 1997, the nations met again for an 11-
day conference in Kyoto, Japan, to finalize the poli-
cies proposed at the Berlin meeting. The conference
resulted in the Kyoto Protocol ,aninternational agree-
ment designed to fight global warming by controlling