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37 Harv. J. on Legis. 345 (2000)
The Kyoto Protocol in Not the Answer to Climate Change

handle is hein.journals/hjl37 and id is 351 raw text is: POLICY ESSAY THE KYOTO PROTOCOL IS NOT THE ANSWER TO CLIMATE CHANGE SENATOR FRANK H. MURKOWSKI* The Kyoto Protocol has been offered as a solution to the problem of climate change. In this Policy Essay, Senator Murkowski argues that the Kyoto Protocol would harm the United States economy and would fail to stabilize concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This Es- say offers alternatives to the Kyoto Protocol that should be implemented as part of a no-regrets approach to climate change that will provide in- centives for innovation, support for new energy technologies, and invest- ment in research to reduce the uncertainty surrounding climate change. We must address responsibly the credible threat of climate change caused by human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. The Kyoto Protocol climate treaty,' often offered as the cure for climate change, is actually bitter medicine that would weaken the American economy and discourage the sustained long-term effort needed to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations and protect the global environment. Even the treaty's most ardent supporters admit that Kyoto alone would not stabilize atmospheric greenhouse gas concen- trations or result in any measurable difference in the climate.2 The explosive growth in emissions from China, India, South Ko- rea, Mexico, and approximately 130 developing nations not bound by emissions limits in the treaty would quickly over- shadow any emissions reductions the United States and the 38 other nations subject to Kyoto's limits achieve.3 At the same time, the Kyoto treaty would harm the United States economy. It requires us to reduce energy use by as much * Member, United States Senate (R-Alaska). B.A., Seattle University, 1955. Senator Murkowski has been a Member of the Senate since 1980. He serves as Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. I Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, adopted Dec. 10, 1997, 37 I.L.M. 22. 2 See, e.g., Bert Bolin, The Kyoto Negotiations on Climate Change: A Science Per- spective, 279 ScIENCE 330, 331 (1998); T.M.L. Wigley, The Kyoto Protocol: C02, CH4 and Climate Implications, 23 GEOPHYs. RES. LETT. 2285, 2285-88 (1998). 3 See Alan Manne & Richard Richels, The Kyoto Protocol: A Cost-Effective Strategy for Meeting Environmental Objectives?, in THE ENERGY JOURNAL: THE COSTS OF THE KYoTo PROTOCOL: A MULTIMODEL EVALUATION 1, 20 (John P. Weyant ed., 1999).

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