Quitting the Kyoto Protocol: The United States Strikes Out Alone
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.
Economic
- An 8 percent reduction in the United States' greenhouse gas emissions would require a substantial revision in the way American industry operated. Lobbyists cited the massive economic and employment dislocations that could occur if such a reduction were made.
- While the protocol requires governments to reduce emissions, the problem of emissions lies with private industries, institutions governments might not be able to coerce into reducing emissions. Large multinational corporations facing costly emissions controls might simply move their production facilities to nations that allow higher CO2 emissions.
In May 2001, 179 nations met in Bonn, Germany, to hammer out an historic environmental accord aimed at reducing the amount of greenhouse gas emissions entering the atmosphere each year. The goal of the conference was to stave off " global warming " or the "greenhouse effect" by requiring different nations to reduce their output of these gases and chemicals by different amounts. Greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, halogenated fluorocarbons, ozone, perfluorinated carbons (PFCs), and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are gases that absorb infrared radiation in the atmosphere. The greenhouse effect occurs when greenhouse gases allow incoming infrared radiation into the earth's atmosphere, but prevent it from escaping, thus keeping the earth warm . While the greenhouse effect is a natural event that sustains life, increased emissions of greenhouse gases due to human activities, particularly industrial processes, are thought to be causing present and future global warming, a gradual rise in the earth's surface temperature, and other potentially harmful climate changes.
The Bonn conference was an effort to ratify and give force to an agreement signed in 1997 called the Kyoto Protocol on Greenhouse Gases. Despite the fact that President Bill Clinton (1993-2001) had signed the protocol, newly elected U.S. President George W. Bush (2001-) announced that he found the protocol to be fatally flawed and indicated that unless it was dramatically revised, the United States would not participate in the Bonn conference. Efforts by several nations, including Great Britain, France, and Germany, to alter Bush's thinking failed, and in June 2001, the president indicated that he would not sign the protocol.
The United States' withdrawal from the Bonn conference seemed to deal a fatal blow to any hope of its success. First, any international agreement that excluded U.S. participation was less likely to be consistently enforced. Second, the United States produces about 25 percent of the key greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2), and its production of CO2 is increasing. Any accord that failed to curb U.S. production of CO2 was likely to be ineffective in combating global warming . Moreover, Japan, another heavy producer of CO2, indicated that if the United States would not participate in the Bonn treaty, it might not participate either.
Despite this major setback, 178 nations continued to work on the protocol, and by July 28, 2001, had hammered out a modified agreement. This agreement was a substantial departure from the agreement first drafted in 1997, but many people believed it was an important first step in dealing with the challenge of climate change. Others believed that the compromises made at Bonn only undermined the accord, making future efforts to address man-made environmental problems more difficult. The critics argued that the withdrawal of the United States allowed industries in many industrialized nations to avoid serious efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
U.S. policy on climate change had been in place since the international environmental conference in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1992. To withdraw from the work in progress was seen by many as an extreme reversal. Was the Kyoto Protocol fatally flawed, as Bush claimed? President Bush rejected the Kyoto Protocol because he believed it placed an unfair burden on industrialized nations while allowing underdeveloped nations to develop and pollute at a much greater degree. Bush also continued to challenge the fundamental assumption of Kyoto: that global warming had been scientifically demonstrated to be a real event, and that it could be traced to human activity.