Defining “Developing Country” in the Second Commitment Period of the Kyoto Protocol

Abstract

In 2005, negotiations began among parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change to lay the groundwork for what was to become the Second Commitment Period of the Kyoto Protocol. Prominent among the issues raised at this initial meeting in Montreal and those that followed, was that of whether rapidly industrializing developing countries would take on binding commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. As in the past, the G-77, the main representative body of developing countries, together with China, strongly opposed any kind of binding commitments. A closer look at the countries comprising the G-77 negotiating group reveals there are vast disparities in economic power and industrialization among them. This Note explores the wide gulf that has emerged between developing countries and suggests that developed countries may have to make difficult decisions about the structure of the Kyoto Protocol to secure commitments from industrializing countries.