The Perspective of the United States on Climate Change and the Kyoto Protocol

Convincing the United States to mitigate its greenhouse gas emissions is critical to spurring a stronger and more durable international response to climate change. This paper focuses on current US action on climate change and the potential for future US emissions targets in both domestic and international arenas. Five topics are covered: (1) the evolving politics of climate change in the United States; (2) the impact of climate change on the US presidential election; (3) lessons learned from the Kyoto process; (4) the prospects for the United States re-engaging internationally; and (5) how to design an international regime that would encourage US participation. While federal mandatory emission targets will take more time, a great deal is happening in the United States at the state and local level. These actions are changing the politics of climate change in the United States in ways that lead many US experts to believe that a stronger national policy is inevitable. Even so, climate change is not playing a significant role in the November 2004 US presidential election campaigns, although a related issue, energy policy, features more prominently. Regardless of who wins the election, the United States will not ratify the Kyoto Protocol and may not return to the Kyoto process to negotiate emission targets beyond 2012. To secure US participation, any international climate treaty must build on prior US domestic regulation and start with exceptionally modest targets for the United States that become more stringent over time. Countries seeking to engage the United States on climate change should keep an open mind about non-Kyoto approaches, given lingering skepticism in the United States about the United Nations and the Kyoto process. The international community should encourage the United States to do more by making good on the emission mitigation pledges they have undertaken and by giving priority to convincing the United States to act at home rather than negotiating a new international treaty

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http://pub.iges.or.jp/modules/envirolib/view.php?docid=433
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