Kyoto Protocol inconsistent with Framework Convention; ministers should scrap Kyoto and adopt adaptation strategy

Milan, Italy – The fate of the Kyoto Protocol has been called into question in recent days. A group of experts from International Policy Network, a London-based NGO, have called on ministers meeting in Milan for the 9th Conference of Parties to the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC) to scrap the Kyoto Protocol and consider alternative approaches, such as adaptation, to deal with climate change.

“Environment ministers and countries have an obligation under international law to consider policies which are consistent with the FCCC,” said Julian Morris, a lawyer and economist and director of International Policy Network. “The FCCC requires that action taken to mitigate climate change must be ‘cost effective, so as to ensure global benefits at lowest possible cost.’ However, Kyoto is an extremely cost-ineffective way to cope with climate change.”

According to the European Environment Agency, most EU countries will not meet Kyoto targets and need to enact more ambitious mitigation schemes. Yet estimates by many internationally respected economic forecasters show that Kyoto will cause serious economic damage and hundreds of thousands of job losses in European countries by 2010.

“By discouraging economic growth and disproportionately harming Europe’s poor, Kyoto will harm Europe’s ability to cope with any future effects of global warming,” commented Kendra Okonski, editor of Adapt or Die* and director of IPN’s Sustainable Development Project. “Ironically, climate policy may expose us to unforeseen risks, and leave us less able to deal with those risks. Future mitigation schemes would cause even more harm to the poorest members of Europe and the world,” she concluded.

While the potential impacts of climate change may not be experienced for several decades, problems such as disease, low agricultural yields, and general vulnerability to climate already affect millions of poor people today. Poverty, caused largely by political and institutional problems, exacerbates these problems.

Ministers should consider an adaptation strategy to climate change.
Unlike Kyoto, adaptation is a morally acceptable policy which prioritizes towards people today as well as future generations, by yielding benefits today and tomorrow in a more cost-effective manner. Adaptation could consist of:
• Strengthening the institutions that drive economic growth and technological change, both in poor and wealthy countries, to enhance societies’ abilities to cope not only with climate change, but adversity in general, regardless of its cause.
• Eliminating regulations that discourage economic growth and sustainable use of resources, especially in poor countries, to ensure that individuals, communities and businesses have incentives to achieve sustainable development.
• Take no-regrets actions, such as eliminating subsidies to producers and consumers, opening trade, encouraging adoption of more efficient technologies in India and China, and supporting blue-skies research into new technologies by companies.
• Invest in the study and understanding of the earth’s climate, how humanity impacts the climate, and how climate change may affect humanity and the environment.