Kyoto and the United States: A Little Bit of Background
The Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is an amendment to the international treaty on climate change, assigning mandatory emission limitations for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to the signatory nations.
The objective of the protocol is the “stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.”
As of December 2006, a total of 169 countries and other governmental entities have ratified the agreement. The United States was not among these countries. Under the Clinton administration, the agreement was signed but the Senate failed to ratify it. Under the Bush administration the agreement was “unsigned.” The primary objection to the Kyoto Protocol is economic. Bush dismissed Kyoto Protocol as too costly, describing it as “an unrealistic and ever-tightening straitjacket.” Additionally, China and India would be exempt from the provisions, which is another point of contention for the United States.