An International Agreement To Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Scientists first described this chemical reaction in the 1970s and first observed erosion of the stratospheric ozone shield (a “hole in the ozone layer”) over Antarctica in 1985. Among other things, colder temperatures lead to conditions that increase exhaustion rates. In 1987, an international agreement on the protection of the ozone layer was signed by eliminating the production and use of “ozone-depleting substances” such as CFCs. This agreement, known as the Montreal Protocol on Ozone Depleting Substances, came into force in 1989 and provided for various phase-out plans for the production and use of various chemicals. Developing countries have been given longer deadlines to comply with exit rules than industrialized countries. The organisation of the European Union Emissions Trading System (ETS) implicitly allows for the setting of national Kyoto commitments between participating countries (Carbon Trust, 2009, p. 24). [50] Carbon Trust (2009, p. 24-25) found that there had been no trading of interstate emission allowances outside of the ETS trade. [50] Key Issue Australia was one of 170 parties that signed the Paris Climate Change Agreement in April 2016. As part of the agreement, most countries pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to limit global warming to a level “well below” 2 degrees Celsius. The government must present the Paris Agreement to Parliament before Australia can ratify it.

The United States withdrew from the agreement in 2001 and unfairly characterized the treaty because it only required industrialized countries to reduce their emissions and felt that it would hamper the U.S. economy. As Milton Friedman says, economic and political freedom can be achieved through capitalism; however, it is never guaranteed that we will have the equality of wealth of those in the “food chain” of this capitalist world. All these changes come to what citizens` leaders choose to impose by improving the lifestyle. In the case of the Kyoto Protocol, provisions will be adopted to reduce the production of pollutants in the environment. In addition, attempts are being made to jeopardize the freedoms of both private citizens and public citizens. On the one hand, it imposes stricter rules on companies and reduces their profits, as they must comply with such rules, often more expensive, alternatives to production. On the other hand, it aims to reduce emissions due to the rapid transformation of the environment, the so-called climate change. The parties reported considerable uncertainty with respect to LUCF`s emissions, but overall there appeared to be only a slight difference of 1.7% with and without LUCF. At LUCF, emissions amounted to 11.9 billion tonnes and, excluding LUCF, total emissions were 11.7 billion tonnes.

The protocol has established market mechanisms based on the exchange of emission permits.