포스트교토체제의 국제법적 과제

What is the problem that made COP15 and COP16 not to draw a conclusion? UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol devide Parties to developed countries group and developing countries group, and differentiated their obligations. The United States government cited this lack of binding obligations for developing countries as one of the reasons for not ratifying the Kyoto Protocol. Does this mean that the present climate change regime unreasonably favours the South? Unlike the Montreal Protocol which contained specific obligations for developing countries, albeit with a grace period for compliance, the Kyoto Protocol does not contain any emission reduction obligation for developing countries. The Kyoto Protocol, which embodies substantial obligations in relation to climate change, contains no obligations for developing country parties apart from some general obligations that embellish commitments contained in the UNFCCC. Of course, the counter-argument can be made that the emission reduction targets in the Kyoto Protocol apply only during the first commitment period and, therefore, it was not necessary to adopt obligations for the South as their contribution to global GHG emissions was relatively negligible at tie time the Kyoto Protocol was negotiated. This argument would have been more plausible if all developing countries were made equal. Counties with large populations and rapidly industrializing economies, such as India, China and Brazil, are anything but equal to other developing countries. It would be unjust to treat them in th same manner as those countries that are particularly vulnerable to climate change, such as the members of the Alliance of Small Island States. Accordingly, the one sided nature of obligations in the Kyoto Protocol becomes problematic as it does not contain any differentiated responsibilities for developing countries - on the contrary, it contains no obligations for developing countries for the first commitment period. While GHG emission reduction targets have been a sensitive issue for many developing countries, it is encouraging that they indicated their willingness for the first time to be subjected to binding commitments under the post-2012 regime.