The climate change story till now...   

It is a reality. Since the industrial revolution we have been pumping monstrous quantities of carbon dioxide(CO2) and other green house gases in the air. Result? The planet has heated up like a garden green house. How did we turn into such Carbon Culprits? Lets trace back.  

    Then came the Kyoto Protocol    

So how can we calculate each country’s share of responsibility? Well, governments around the globe have been considering various options. In 1997 they adopted the Kyoto Protocol, which set the first emission cut targets for the rich nations. At a very moderate 5.2 per cent cuts on an average on the levels recorded in 1900, by 2008-12. The Protocol also defined some ‘flexible’ methods which the big emitters could adopts to meet their goals. For instance, the emission-indebted developed countries were allowed to pay their low emitting counterparts in the developing world to invest in clean technologies.

Unfortunately, here too, the global community has failed to deliver. Instead of focussing on technologies and energy-saving devices that could stem the rising temperatures and rising tides, countries are quibbling with each other to strike the cheapest deal…So a few companies may have struck gold already, but the no real solution has been found. And the stalemate among the nations continues.

Now, as the 2012 deadline approaches, the governments are getting ready to meet in December 2009, to take stock of the current carbon status. The venue is Copenhagen, Denmark. The fate of the Kyoto Protocol will be decided here. Will it be scrapped as irrelevant, or will it continue to govern the Climate parleys?

To follow the debate, read the next issue of Gobar Times