Greenhouse gas emissions and the role of the Kyoto

Authors: Hiroki Iwata Keisuke Okada

Publish Date: 2012/09/25

Volume: 16, Issue: 4, Pages: 325-342

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Abstract

Our study empirically investigates the effects of the Kyoto Protocol’s quantified emission limitation or reduction commitments on various greenhouse gas GHG emissions such as carbon dioxide CO2 methane CH4 nitrous oxide N2O and other greenhouse gases consisting of hydrofluorocarbons HFCs perfluorocarbons PFCs and sulfur hexafluoride SF6 These GHG emissions are considered to be the main source of global warming issues and 39 countries approved to meet the commitments by ratifying the Kyoto Protocol Our empirical analysis is based on the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population Affluence and Technology STIRPAT model the stochastic version of the IPAT model using the data of 119 countries from 1990 to 2005 Our main findings are that the effects of the commitments to the Kyoto Protocol are 1 significantly negative for the cases of CO2 and CH4 emissions 2 not significant for the case of N2O emissions and 3 significantly positive for the case of other greenhouse gas emissions These results have important policy implications for global warming issues

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