The Kyoto Protocol: Is the Clinton-Gore Administration Selling Out Americans? : Parts I-VI : Hearing Before the Subcommittee on National Economic Growth, Natural Resources, and Regulatory Affairs of the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight, House of Representatives, One Hundred Fifth Congress, Second Session, April 23; May 19 and 20; June 24; July 15; and September 16, 1998

Front Cover

From inside the book

Contents

247
916
1175
1021
16
1041

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

Popular passages

Page 350 - Programme, concluded in 1995 that "the balance of evidence suggests that there is a discernible human influence on global climate.
Page 974 - Funds for weatherization will still be available through the Departments of Health and Human Services and Housing and Urban Development.
Page 355 - air pollutant" means any air pollution agent or combination of such agents, including any physical, chemical, biological, radioactive (including source material, special nuclear material, and byproduct material) substance or matter which is emitted into or otherwise enters the ambient air.
Page 516 - Protocol incorporates this principle of "when flexibility" in four ways: • First, the initial emissions reductions are less severe, and the period over which they occur ends much later than what had been proposed by many other countries. By adopting a gradual and credible path of reductions in the early years, we can greatly reduce costs such as those from prematurely scrapping coal-fired electricity plants, while attaining the same ultimate environmental goals. Second, under the Kyoto Protocol,...
Page 872 - SUBCOMMITTEE ON NATIONAL ECONOMIC GROWTH, NATURAL RESOURCES, AND REGULATORY AFFAIRS, COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM AND OVERSIGHT, Washington, DC.
Page 514 - N20 and its choice of 1990 or 1995 levels of the other three categories of gases. The United States agreed to a target of 7 percent below this baseline by the period between 2008 and 2012. Given the changes in the definition of the baseline for the three long-lived chemical compounds (HFCs, PFCs and SF6) from 1990 to 1995 combined with a change in the way sinks are accounted for in the baseline, the actual reduction required in the US is no more than 2-3% more than the President originally proposed...
Page 527 - Kyoto targets for emission reductions might amount to $7 to $12 billion per year in 2008 to 2012. This implies that overall costs, excluding not only climate and non-climate benefits, but also such cost mitigating factors as sinks and payoffs from the President's electricity restructuring and climate change initiatives, would reach roughly one tenth of one percent of projected GDP in 2010. A more tangible measure of costs is the estimated effects on energy prices. Excluding the impact of electricity...
Page 512 - ... life and health, air pollution, and other costs (hurricanes, relocation costs, human amenity, construction, leisure activities, urban infrastructure, and ecological damages such as forest loss and species loss). Although the quantification of these effects is quite demanding, researchers have developed estimates that prompt substantial concern. The IPCC reports that a doubling of carbon dioxide levels would lead to approximately 10,000 estimated additional deaths per year for the current US population...
Page 524 - The substantial potential gains from meaningful developing country participation are highlighted by the significant benefits that will likely accrue from the limited role that the developing countries have already agreed to: the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), modeled after the US joint implementation concept. The CDM cannot realistically be expected to yield all the gains of binding targets for developing countries, but it might shave costs by roughly another 20 to 25 percent from the reduced...
Page 370 - ... change has led to coordinated international efforts to reduce the risks of global warming by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases. A landmark international agreement to address global warming was the Framework Convention on Climate Change signed during the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. This convention established an objective of limiting greenhouse gas concentrations and called upon industrial countries to return their emissions to 1990 levels by 2000. Since then, it has become clear...

Bibliographic information