New approaches to attract developing countries to the climate change regime

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper seeks to examine what delays developing countries commitments in the climate change regime. A decade ago, the Kyoto Protocol created a binding emission control obligation only to developed countries. After a decade has passed, developing countries still have no obligation to control emissions. Considering a fast growing greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries, it is a vital issue to engage developing countries to participate in the global effort to protect the climate.An analysis of the Montreal Protocol in the ozone depletion regime is helpful to identity the successful elements of the system. Having faced a strong opposition from developing countries against any imposition of obligation, the ozone regime effectively used positive and negative incentives to attract developing countries’ participation.The Kyoto Protocol in the climate change regime adopted similar incentive elements from the Montreal Protocol. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) serves as a positive incentive and an emission trading exclusive to member countries with binding targets serves a negative incentive. However, the CDM is not effective enough to encourage developing countries’ further commitments, since it does not attach any additional obligation to enjoy the CDM projects. An emission trading system is an opportunity cost for developing countries if they do not embrace a fixed target obligation. However, joining the binding obligation is the detrimental economic risk to developing countries.Based on these shortcomings of the Kyoto Protocol system, the paper seeks to introduce some leading alternative proposals to the post-Kyoto Protocol system. Intensive Targets purports to relieve economic burdens of developing countries in meeting emission control system. Sustainable Development Policies and Measures (SD-PAMs) encourage developing countries to set development plans that are consistent with climate protection scheme. Action targets share the importance of long term sustainable development drive with SD-PAMs and yet try to provide a system structure that is workable under the Kyoto Protocol.The paper argues that the current Kyoto Protocol system fails to provide developing countries sufficient incentives to accept a binding obligation. Without developing countries’ effort to curtail greenhouse gas emission, protection of climate change seems unattainable. The three alternative approaches to the Kyoto Protocol provide various policy options for both developing and developed countries to take in order to attract developing countries’ participation in the next negotiations to come.