Kyoto Protocol Essay

The Kyoto protocol is the additional document of the UN’s climate changing convention. 159 states have signed it in Kyoto (Japan), in 1997.

It came into effect in 2005 and was ratified by these countries which give 55% of all worlds’ emission. The countries arranged the necessity of the emission reduction which can lead to the global warming. This document provides that during the period from 2008 till 2012 all carbon dioxide and methane emission must be reduced by 5.2%. Each country gets definite quota for emission. If some country doesn’t use all limits it can sell quota for another country. According to the UN experts’ opinion such mechanism should help the developing countries to receipt additional money for industry development. The Kyoto Protocol has caused a lot of disputes in the scientists’ circles. The main reason of such disputes was the great number of advantages and limitations of this document.

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The most significant disadvantages of the protocol are:

1. The absence of any obligations between the hugest issuers of the greenhouse gases. All the countries which have signed the Kyoto protocol in 2005 emit less than 30% of all emissions. The USA, China and India - three largest producers in the world, haven’t taken any obligations yet. Without them the Kyoto protocol in the existent form can’t seriously influence on ecology.

2. The Kyoto protocol allows transferring unused and unsold quotas to the next periods of the protocol effect. The problem is in the quotes surplus which has formed because of the economic recession. For example, in the former USSR countries the emissions have reduced twice in comparison with 1990. Most of the European countries are against quotes transferring.

The other problem is that the poorest countries which are not guilty in any ecological problems will suffer more than anyone. The conditions of life are bad in these countries and with climate changes they will become terrible. Such countries need a lot of financial and technological support from international organizations to prevent any ecological changes and to adapt to them. But here they face with the problem of decision making. The mechanisms of the associate collaboration and development were exposed to criticism many times because of the excessive bureaucracy and other procedural problems. According to information published by the World Bank from project developing to emission reduction three years pass.

Despite of such limitations the Kyoto protocol has many advantages too. The first and the main of them is the positive effect on the ecological situation on Earth. The scientists agreed that the reduction of the gas emissions has already made an impact on the general ecological situation. The developed countries which produce nearly 3/4 of all emissions were obligated to do everything to lower this volume. At the same time many developing countries have enough time and cost to implement necessary technologies. The adoption of the Kyoto protocol will not only improve the ecological situation on Earth but also speed up the development of the new technological processes. Since its confirmation many huge manufactures have successfully implemented...

Essay on Accounting Standards

The governments all over the world are now introducing new strict rules to make the companies more accountable, but the government bureaucrats are still playing their own rules and are far from being honest and precise. There is one set of accounting standards for business and a completely different one for the governments.

According to the USA Today reports, the American Government deficit would be many times larger if it employed the kind of accounting that applies to companies and business. Pentagon also has great problems in tracking the numbers and shows absolutely unrealistic statistic data. Another country where the government is using its own standards and rules is Australia.

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The companies and ordinary people in Australia are very dissatisfied with the fact that their government uses the accounting standards that differ from those applied to business. They require taking measures in order to make the public sector more accountable and solve the main problems with the figures tracking. Many of the economists claim that the government departments usually have no idea of the quantity and the location of the equipment they own. These departments are to follow international accounting rules with special carve-outs in certain clauses that are supposed to apply to the public sector. But the accounting experts state that many of those carve-outs are no longer relevant in our modern world and make the accounting process in the public sector more complicated. I’ve found a very interesting example that shows the typical problems of the governmental accounting. The Australian newspapers have recently reported that the defense bureaucrats have been asked about how they can classify an account for missiles. One missile costs more than $500 000, but missiles often appear in the books as property or inventory. There are also strong concerns about how the Australian government deals with various heritage objects and all this leads us to one conclusion – the accounting standards for business and governments should be the same and rely on the market reality.

It is obvious, that the governments are using their own accounting standards to present the favorable facts and figures and give the statistic data that will help to create an attractive country’s image. But it is also obvious to me that the public should be given the truth and the facts should be fair and precise. If the governments are made more accountable, they will be more careful in their actions and policy measures and the public will have more control over the country’s assets and property.