Week 6 Item 11
The Kyoto Protocol is an issue Obama has had a bit of a conflict with. He recognizes the need for coal in his home state on one hand, but on the other, he realizes that coal burning emits quite a bit of carbon, one of the major greenhouse gases which the Kyoto Protocol calls for reducing.
According to the webiste for the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change, the Kyoto Protocol calls to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases (Carbon, Methane, Nitrous Oxide, Sulfur Hexaflouride, Hydroflourocarbons, and Perflorocarbons) by 5.2% in relation to 1990 emission levels by 2012. Different countries are called to reduce their emissions by different levels based on original emission and country size and population.
In 1998, Obama voted for a piece of legislation which rejected the Kyoto Protocol. It is theorized that he voted this way because of his support for the coal industry. He has not made a public statement explaining why he voted this way, but has since changed his mind, promising to sign the Kyoto Protocol, and do more in order to prevent the United States from releasing even more greenhouse gases than the Kyoto Protocol asks of the United States. On his website, he states that his administration would take steps to reduce emissions in the United States to the levels we were at in 1990 by 2020, but would be reduced to 80% of those levels by 2050. Obama would see to it that businesses would be charged money in order to eliminate greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and that technology would be created in order to have liquid coal release 20% less carbon than the current fuels in use in the US.
In addition, Obama would join once again the UN Framework and Convention on Climate Change, commiting to help them create a global energy forum in efforts to maintain the efforts which go along with the Kyoto Protocol.
http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/convkp/kpeng.pdf
http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-07-17-obama-coal_N.htm
http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/newenergy_more#emissions
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