The Kyoto Protocol and the JUSCANNZ/Umbrella Group Countries – Party and Political System-Conditioned Determinants

Abstract

Global Warming and the Kyoto Protocol are issues that raise many controversies. This matter is especially visible in the countries which formed the JUSCANNZ, later renamed the Umbrella Group, which is an alliance in the climate negotiations process that consists of non-European Union developed states that – above all – oppose new greenhouse gases emissions reductions commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto Protocol itself and the aforementioned commitments were and still are the sources of conflicts on the international and country levels. On the country level these conflicts are highly noticeable in four Umbrella Group countries: United States, Australia, New Zealand and Canada and they occurred on various levels in regard to the Kyoto Protocol: negotiation (case of the United States), ratification (cases of the United States and Australia), implementation (cases of the Australia and New Zealand) and a level that can be called a “withdrawal” level (case of Canada). All these conflicts were caused by differences in main political parties’ positions towards the Kyoto Protocol and/or by differences in the look on that matter presented by the legislative branch and the executive branch. In this article the abovementioned issues will be examined.