Quitting the Kyoto Protocol: the United States Strikes Out Alone
The Conflict
The huge international effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and counter global warming experienced a major setback at its conference in Bonn, Germany, in May 2001, when the United States pulled out of the conference and refused to sign the revised Kyoto Protocol. What could be done when the producer of 25 percent of the world's greenhouse emissions refused to participate, possibly threatening the rest of the world with its emissions? The Bonn conference forged ahead in its negotiations, attempting to create an effective international agreement despite the loss of U.S. participation.
Political
- U.S. President George W. Bush challenged the fundamental assumption of Kyoto: that global warming had been demonstrated to be a real event, and that it could be traced to human activity. Bush also believed that the Kyoto Protocol put undue responsibility on industrialized nations without requiring the participation of developing nations.
- With concessions made in compromise, the revised protocol featured loopholes, such as a trading system for emissions reductions and credits for tree-planting. To some critics these features were unfair and could render the accord ineffective in decreasing greenhouse emissions in the future.
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