Word: kyoto
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...that everyone would agree. What happened in Kyoto will not, in and of itself, stave off global warming. The treaty now known as the Kyoto Protocol dictates that by 2012 the average output of heat-trapping gases like carbon dioxide--generated mostly by the burning of fossil fuels in factories, cars and power plants--must be reduced 5.2% below where it was in 1990. But it would take a 60% reduction to make much of a dent in the greenhouse gases that have been building up in the atmosphere since the start of the industrial revolution...
Beyond that, the Kyoto accord doesn't require developing countries like China and India--themselves major polluters--to reduce their emissions at all. To complicate matters further, the treaty will not take effect until it has been ratified--and in the U.S., Senate Republicans have made it clear that that they have no intention of letting that happen. Even if they did, Congress would then have to approve tax incentives and other costly measures to bring the U.S. into compliance. And that would require the even more conservative House to go along...
Given the long list of caveats, it's tempting to think the Kyoto negotiators have badly overstated the significance of their treaty. Yet even some environmentalists, despite having hoped for a much tougher agreement, were surprisingly upbeat. "It's disappointing in terms of what it'll do for the environment," says Jennifer Morgan, who attended the meeting as a representative of the Climate Action Network. "But we have a legally binding document. That's a start...
...first week of the conference, even a start seemed well out of reach. E.U. delegates, representing countries with especially powerful green parties, had arrived in Kyoto with an ambitious proposal: industrial nations should cut their emissions 15% below 1990 levels by the year 2010. Easy for them to say: Europe relies heavily on emission-free nuclear power. Besides, the collapse of the former East Germany's antiquated industries and a massive switchover in Great Britain from coal to natural gas during the 1990s have given Europe a big head start toward that goal...
...greatest greenhouse-gas emitter on the planet, the U.S. should take the lead in cutting back--a position the President himself took seriously. In the end, Clinton split the difference. Chief U.S. negotiator Stuart Eizenstat, Under Secretary of State for Economic, Business and Agricultural Affairs, arrived in Kyoto with a proposal to cut emissions back to 1990 levels, no lower, between...