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The Kyoto Protocol is likely to give only minor environmental benefits. One important reason is that the industrial economies in transition to market economies have assigned amounts (national emission quotas) that do not reflect that these countries have experienced large emission reductions after the collapse of the communist regimes. These countries consequently have assigned amounts that probably will be considerably larger than their business-as-usual emissions in the commitment period. Hence, these countries will probably be able to sell emission permits on a large scale without carrying out abatement domestically. There are signs that Russia will ratify the Kyoto Protocol. Nevertheless, after the US withdrawal the Protocol is likely to give rise only to small emission reductions. The article sheds light on the consequences of implementation, & discusses what should be the next step forward in the international climate negotiations. The article concludes that an increased degree of realism is necessary with respect to the limitations & potentials of the Kyoto Protocol. Increased attention should be given to other proposed concepts for climate agreements. 3 Tables, 1 Figure, 37 References. Adapted from the source document.

All Annex B parties but Russia, Australia and USA, have ratified the Kyoto Protocol so far. It is still an open question whether Russia will ratify and secure that the Protocol enters into force. This paper therefore analyzes consequences of some proposed alternatives if the Russians decide not to ratify. The paper focuses on two cases where a limited number of the remaining Annex B parties respond to Russian withdrawal by the establishment of a new "mini-Kyoto" agreement whereby these parties commit themselves to the emission caps, the rules for emissions trading, compliance etc. set out in the Protocol. Environmentally, implementation of the Kyoto Protocol without participation from Russia and Ukraine is obviously superior to implementation with Russian/Ukrainian participation, due to the implied withdrawal of hot air based permits from the market. Implementation of the Kyoto Protocol without Russian/Ukrainian participation will, furthermore, imply higher costs to the remaining countries. This paper provides estimates of the permit price and environmental benefits that are likely if the proposed "mini-Kyoto" agreements are implemented.

Soil erosion and soil mining are important environmental problems in many developing countries and may represent a considerable drag on economic development. The cost of soil degradation depends, however, not only on the productivity effects it has on agricultural growth, but also on how the agricultural sectors are linked to the rest of the economy. This article describes an integrated economy–soil-productivity model for Ghana, and through several simulated scenarios we calculate the drag on the Ghanaian economy of soil mining and erosion, and illustrate the effects of different policies aiming at a reduction in these environmental problems.

Agenda 21 required countries to develop and regularly update a national set of indicators for sustainable development. Several countries now have such sets also including separate indicators for climate change. Some of these indicators typically report global concentration of green house gases in the atmosphere or time series for global temperatures. While such indicators may give the public information about the state of the global climate, they do not provide a benchmark which makes it possible for the public to evaluate the climate policy of their government. With Kantian ethics as our point of departure, we propose a benchmark for national climate policy. The benchmark is that each nation state should act as if a global treaty on climate change were in place. This would require each nation state to carry out all green house gas mitigation projects below a certain cost. Furthermore, it would require each nation to keep their national green house gas emissions including acquisitions of emission permits from other countries within a certain limit. Both measures are relatively easy to track and can thus serve as indicators.

The Sustainable Edge sector briefs summarize material climate-related risks and impacts to investors and lenders. The briefs cover key risks, emission sources, risk management and climate-related regulation relevant for each sector. They also provide key analyst questions that are important to consider in order to understand the climate risk of companies in the sector. The sector briefs are developed to support capacity building on climate risk in financial institutions. The six sectors covered are agriculture, aluminium, aquaculture, land transport, real estate, and shipping. The next section summarizes some key messages from each brief. ; publishedVersion