Beyond Kyoto - A New Global Climate Certificate System: Continuing Kyoto Commitsments or a Global ´Cap and Trade´ Scheme for a Sustainable Climate Policy?

This balanced analysis presents news from the ‘climate-protection front’. On the down-side, neither the current 'Kyoto-Protocol' Climate Protection System with (legally binding) commitments by major countries to reduce or limit their greenhouse gas emissions nor various proposals for improving the commitment system are capable of meeting the ultimate objective 'to prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system'. On the up-side, by implementing the GCCS, it appears that the ultimate climate protection objective quoted can be achieved, that developing and newly industrialized countries can be integrated into the protection system by installing a 'fair system' based on the democratic principle of 'one man – one climate emission right', and that no industrialized nation nor its consumers of fossil fuels will be overburdened. Just like all proposed climate-protection schemes, extremely high hurdles will have to be overcome when implementing the GCCS. However, thanks to its important merits and its structural elements, there exists still a small chance that mankind will manage to prevent dangerous climate change.