Oversight Hearing on the Kyoto Protocol: The Undermining of American Prosperity : Hearing Before the Committee on Small Business, House of Representatives, One Hundred Fifth Congress, Second Session, Washington, DC, June 4, 1998, Volume 4

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U.S. Government Printing Office, 1998 - 228 pages

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Page 153 - Nevertheless, the balance of evidence suggests that there is a discernible human influence on global climate.
Page 4 - ... potentials, reductions in emissions of one gas can be used to substitute for increases in emissions of another by an amount that has equivalent environmental effects. Again at US urging, all six gases are included, while Japan and the EU had insisted until the end on covering only three. Thus the US succeeded in having the Kyoto Protocol stipulate that countries with binding targets are to reduce their total greenhouse gas emissions by certain percentages, but does not require specific reductions...
Page 157 - US negotiating position. The targets for the European Union and Japan are 8 percent and 6 percent below 1990 levels, respectively. Australia, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, and Ukraine all have limits somewhat less ambitious when phrased as cuts relative to their 1990 levels. In sum, over the period from 2008 to 2012, the industrial countries are expected to reduce their average emissions of greenhouse gases to about 5 percent below their 1990 levels. The President has made clear that he will not submit...
Page 164 - Domestically, this means that we implement any emissions reductions through a market-based system oftradeable emissions permits, which ensures that we achieve reductions wherever they are least expensive. But this also means taking serious and responsible steps in the short run to prepare us to meet our obligations in the longer term.
Page 136 - Our ability to quantify the human influence on global climate is currently limited because the expected signal is still emerging from the noise of natural variability, and because there are uncertainties in key factors.
Page 138 - December 1997, or thereafter, which would— (A) mandate new commitments to limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the Annex I Parties, unless the protocol or other agreement also mandates new specific scheduled commitments to limit or reduce greenhouse gas emissions for Developing Country Parties within the same compliance period...
Page 158 - Economic studies have found that there are many potential policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for which the total benefits outweigh the total costs. For the United States in particular, sound economic analysis shows that there are policy options that would slow climate change without harming American living standards, and these measures may in fact improve US productivity in the longer run.
Page 154 - ... dollars. The figure given above translates this number into 1997 terms by scaling it to current GDP.) William Nordhaus of Yale University has likewise computed estimates of the dollar loss attributable to a doubling of greenhouse gas concentrations. Although he uses methods that differ from Cline's in several respects, Nordhuas estimates that a slightly larger temperature change of 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit would impose losses equal to about 1 percent of GDP. A third independent estimate reported...
Page 157 - US, for industry, they were 5 cents per kilowatt hour in 199S, a fraction of prices in Switzerland of 13 cents per kilowatt hour. Yet US industry is not moving en masse to Venezuela, nor is Swiss industry moving to the United States. Third, roughly two-thirds of all emissions are not in manufacturing at all, but in transportation and buildings, sectors which, by their very nature, are severely limited in their ability to relocate to other countries. We therefore believe we need...
Page 6 - Similar government-industry efforts are proposed to develop more efficient diesel engines for both light trucks and heavy trucks. A second responsible step entails industry-by-industry consultations to prepare emission reduction plans in key industrial sectors. The Administration will work in partnership with industry to identify ways in which the Federal government might remove regulatory hurdles that discourage energy efficiency. In addition, DOE will spearhead a comprehensive effort to improve...

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