Carbon Emissions: Copenhagen, and the Kyoto Protocol
In December 2009, the world's attentions focussed on the Climate Change Summit at Copenhagen. The world was watching to see if an accord could be reached on a new framework, one that would replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. Since 1992, the Kyoto Protocol has been the main framework in worldwide initiatives against: climate change, global warming, and carbon emissions. From the Kyoto Protocol came the concept of carbon trading. (Curious readers can read more about carbon trading and the Kyoto Protocol by diving into "Carbon Trading and the Kyoto Protocol" by Prof. P. Coles and Prof. B. Edelman of Harvard Business School.) Developing nations have requested that "the Kyoto Protocol should continue and that developed countries should slash their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent, compared to 1990 levels, by 2020." Developing nations, including Malaysia, are not bound by the Kyoto Protocol but are able to engage in carbon trading unde...