A guide to the Kyoto protocol: a treaty with potentially vital strategic implications for the renewables industry

摘要

Why should renewables advocates care about the arcane business of multilateral climate negotiations? The answer is simple. Because these long-running and oft bogged-down talks have as their 'ultimate objective' a goal with seismic implications for energy markets: 'substantial' reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Coming anywhere close to that goal would entail the creation of multi-hundred billion dollar markets in renewables in the years ahead. And in Kyoto last December, governments took a meaningful first step in that direction.. This paper is a brief summary, and analysis of that first step. It concludes with some Observations about immediate implications for the renewables industries.