Kyoto Protocol- a facade?

An agreement has been reached to extend the Kyoto Treaty by 8 years to 2020, which hopefully by then, a more suitable and equitable Treaty can be drawn up and implemented. I would like to direct you to the video that can be found in that news article, where it shows Andy Atkins from Friends of the Earth. He claims that the current agreement reached at the UN conference is an 'empty deal'. This is because no new cuts have been mandated and the agreement was only an extension of the existing treaty (which already has severe limitations in reducing greenhouse gas emissions). The article mentions that one thing that came out of the talks was the recognition for a global effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions but implementing an equitable and all-inclusive policy would be a 'monumentally difficult'.

Andy Atkins's comments are in some ways similar to his comments after the Durban climate talks in 2011. 

Interview with Andy Atkins (2011)

He says that there is a framework (or 'shell') where theoretically policies can be implemented to help developing countries reduce greenhouse gas emissions but the 'shell' is essentially empty. The problem faced at the Doha talks seems to be a continuation of this. Countries agree that developed nations should help developing countries to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change. This effort has culminated in the establishment of the green climate fund this year. However, even though there is much hype about this, countries have refused to comment and promise any form of funds to reach the targeted level of investment by 2020. This is most likely due to the economic and political implications back at home (as explained in my previous post). Most notably, the US government has refused to promise any form of funds to help developing countries mitigate climate change impacts but President Obama has recently asked congress for $60bn for the damages caused by Hurricane Sandy.

In my opinion, this shows that the problem of mitigating climate change is very much politically and economically influenced. When political or economic concerns override the peripheral concern for the changing climate, there will be a stagnation of policy implementation (which is in many ways what we are experiencing at present). As such, there needs to be more 'action' and less 'talk' if we were to rein in the negative effects of climate change.