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5.21 Climate Change

natural processes maintain atmospheric GHG concentrations at relatively stable levels,
which have allowed global temperatures to remain at constant levels over the last several
centuries. As the concentrations of GHGs have increased as a result of human industrial
activity, the amount of infrared radiation that is trapped has increased, thereby increasing
the Earth’s average temperature.

5.21.2 RELEVANT PLANS, POLICIES, AND REGULATIONS

Many legal requirements applicable to greenhouse gas and climate change continue to be
expanded and modified. This subsection presents a summary of applicable international
laws (national treaties followed by sub-national agreements), federal laws, regulations and
other actions, state laws, regulations, and other actions, and then local (regional and County)
laws, regulations and other actions. Many of these legal requirements emerged over time
through a combination of executive or agency actions, court decisions, regulations, enacted
statutes, and approved plans. This regulatory background discussion includes a broader
range of legal authorities than is included in other topical sections; is focused on the most
significant of these measures; and based on the continuing evolution of these requirements
within each category, is generally organized chronologically from earliest to most recent.

International

International Treaties and Other Developments

The Kyoto Protocol is an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework
Convention on Climate Change. It was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, on December 11, 1997, and
entered into force on February 16, 2005. The major feature of the Kyoto Protocol is that it
sets binding targets for 37 industrialized countries and the European community for
reducing GHG emissions. The targets amount to an average of five percent reduction against
1990 levels over the 2008–2012 five-year period. The major distinction between the
Protocol and the Convention is that, while the Convention encouraged industrialized
countries to stabilize GHG emissions, the Protocol commits them to do so. Recognizing that
developed countries are principally responsible for the current high levels of GHG emissions
in the atmosphere as a result of more than 150 years of industrial activity, the Protocol places
a heavier burden on developed nations under the principle of “common but differentiated
responsibilities” (UN 1997). The United States has not ratified the Kyoto Protocol. A
2 /3 majority vote in the Senate is required for approval. As long as the United States has not
ratified the treaty, it is not subject to its terms and obligations.

Negotiations after Kyoto have continued in an attempt to address the period after the first
“commitment period” of the Kyoto Protocol, concluded at the end of 2012. In Durban, South
Africa, in 2011, parties to the protocol agreed in principle to negotiate a new comprehensive
and legally binding climate agreement by 2015 and to enter it into force for all parties
starting from 2020. However, significant divisions remain in determining the parameters of
any such new protocol, including its enforcement mechanisms and the degree to which
developing economies will begin to be subject to binding emissions targets.

The 21 session of the Conference of Parties (COP21) took place from November 30, 2015 to
st
December 11, 2015, in Paris, France. The session included representatives from 196 parties

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Draft EIR