By Noah Grand
Daily Bruin Reporter
While many Europeans discuss environmental treaties as moral
questions about their lifestyle of consumption, the U.S. government
is looking at the same question in terms of dollars and cents, said
UCLA law professor Kal Raustiala.
Thursday’s round-table discussion in the Faculty Center
focused on whether the Kyoto Protocol, a multinational agreement
aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions worldwide, could
accomplish this goal or succeed as a basis for future agreements on
the environment.
“The main purpose of the Kyoto Protocol is to figure out
how to set an international regulatory agency,” said Rob
Lempert, a scientist for RAND, an independent California-based
research group.
Many doubt whether the treaty can reduce emissions because of
difficulties in enforcing the treaty and resistance from the United
States ““ one of the largest emitters of carbon dioxide
““ to agree to the treaty.
In the past, nations complied with environmental treaties
because they don’t require many stipulations, Raustiala
said.
Treaties such as the Kyoto Protocol are based on all
participants negotiating targets for emissions.
If the United States approves the treaty, it would be obligated
to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to 7 percent below 1990
emissions levels by the year 2012.
Carbon dioxide, emitted by cars and most power plants, is
generally considered one of the main contributors to the greenhouse
effect and global warming.
But it is difficult to predict the effects of global warming 40
or 100 years from now, which Lempert said is one of the main
reasons the United States has opposed the treaty.
“The U.S. State Department is more focused on costs than
the European Union,” Raustiala said.
Lempert predicts the Bush administration will push for more
research and new technologies, such as improving fuel efficiency to
cut down on automobile emissions.
Other research to find renewable energy sources are possible,
Lempert said.
But some audience members were not convinced such technologies
would be implemented.
Richard Turco, director of UCLA’s Institute of the
Environment who moderated the discussion, said UCLA is implementing
renewable energy through the campus’ cogeneration plant,
which supplies most of the campus’ power.
The Institute for the Environment is also working to implement
additional sources of sustainable energy, such as an energy
efficient cooling tank under its new building, he said.
The institute must educate people in addition to implementing
ideas, he said.
“We need an organized effort to teach students about one
of the major issues that will affect their quality of life,”
Turco said.