Climate Change: The Unmet Obligation to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

• Author: Donald A. Brown
• Pages: 251-267

Chapter 17

Climate Change: The Unmet Obligation to

Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Donald A. Brown

This chapter summarizes the performance of the U.S. government

in reducing the threat of climate change since 2002,1focusing on U.S.

responsibilities under the United Nations Framework Convention on

Climate Change (UNFCCC).2For several reasons, the U.S. obliga-

tions under the UNFCCC can be understood to constitute minimum

sustainability requirements:

·The United States has ratified the UNFCCC, which means

that it is legally binding under international law.

·Other federal obligations on sustainable development that

relate to climate change, including those in Agenda 21, are

“soft law,”that is, nonbinding promises of the United States.

·Only the UNFCCC contains express obligations in regard

to greenhouse gas emissions.

·The UNFCCC includes provisions that are understood to

be the building blocks of an international climate change re-

gime that likely will continue to structure national responses

to climate change.

·Almost all climate change programs adopted by the United

States can be understood as consistent with U.S. commit-

ments under the UNFCCC to implement climate change poli-

cies and measure their effectiveness.

Because climate change is a global problem that requires interna-

tional cooperation for a solution, a nation’s responsibility for climate

change must be thought of in terms of its fair share of global emis-

sions. That is, national climate change actions must be judged in rela-

tion to international climate change obligations. In addition, the

UNFCCC contains binding obligations of party nations, including the

United States, on such matters as the goal of the treaty, obligations of

rich nations to poor nations, and international reporting requirements.

Takingstock of how the United States has lived up to its UNFCCC ob-

251

ligations is therefore central to any evaluation of the U.S. performance

on climate change.

The UNFCCC took effect in 1994, and now has 189 parties.3Many

Americans are unaware of, or have forgotten, the fact that the United

States is party to the UNFCCC. Yet the treaty is likely to continue to be

relevant to the U.S. international obligations on climate change even

if the nation decides not to join an international regime that sets spe-

cific greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets such as those specified

in the Kyoto Protocol. In 2001, President George W.Bush specifically

reaffirmed a U.S. commitment to the UNFCCC, despite the Bush Ad-

ministration’s unwillingness to participate in the Kyoto Protocol.4

The analysis in this chapter concludes that the United States has

failed to live up to its climate change obligations in regard to reduc-

tions in greenhouse gas emissions, although it has done much better

on many other international climate change obligations. The failure of

the United States to meet its emissions-reductions obligations can be

traced to the U.S. unwillingness to put into place legally binding re-

strictions on GHG emissions. At this time, the United States is virtu-

ally isolated from the rest of the developed world in committing itself

to binding international obligations to reduce these emissions. Al-

though the federal government has implemented a host of voluntary

energy programs and a few mandatory energy-efficiency require-

ments, the country has failed to meet its commitments under the

UNFCCC because energy demand in the United States has outpaced

gains in energy efficiency.

Why is it important for the United States to live up to its obligations

under the UNFCCC? As discussed later in this chapter, the Bush Ad-

ministration, at the UNFCCC negotiations in Bali in 2007, finally

agreed to rejoin the rest of the world under the UNFCCC and negotiate

a second commitment period to follow the Kyoto Protocol. Because

the Kyoto Protocol creates emissions reductions obligations from

2008 to 2012, the international community will need to establish a

new framework for a period after 2012. Given the now universal inter-

national agreement among countries to work within the UNFCCC, the

treaty and its implementing protocols are very likely to constitute the

structure of the international climate change regime in the years

ahead. For this reason, if the United States has any desire to show lead-

ership in solving the enormous problem of climate change, it will need

252 AGENDA FOR A SUSTAINABLE AMERICA