Word: kyoto
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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TIME.com: Europeans are outraged by President Bush's rejection of the Kyoto accord. But with the 500-pound guerrilla of carbon-gas output saying no to cutting emissions, what options are left to the Europeans...
...James Graff: Well, they're going to go ahead with the talks scheduled for Bonn in the summer that had been scheduled to discuss mechanisms of implementing Kyoto. The Bush administration had twice asked that those talks be postponed to allow it to participate, and it appears that the Americans plan to be there. There's obviously some fear among the Europeans that the U.S. will now simply try to block everything at Bonn...
...primary reason cited by the Bush administration for baling on Kyoto is that it exempts developing countries from the initial round of cuts, whereas industrialized countries would be required, by the year 2012, to have collectively reduced their output of the "greenhouse gases" that contribute to global warming to 5.2 percent of their 1990 output levels, with the United States (which, despite constituting less than 5 percent of the planet's population, generates between 25 and 30 percent of the total output of greenhouse gases) required to make a 7 percent...
...exempted developing countries at this stage was the acceptance that the "greenhouse gas" problem has built up over a century, and that the contribution of the developing countries to it over that time has been negligible. They acknowledge that treaties will have to be expanded, but settled on the Kyoto formula as a starting point...
...Bush's comments about the economy make it clear that the administration would be unlikely to fall in behind the agreement if it were amended to include the likes of China and India. To understand the impact of the cuts required by Kyoto on the U.S., it's worth noting that while emission outputs in Western Europe have begun to stabilize and even fall in some cases, here they've grown a substantial amount every year since 1990. In other words, a 7 percent cut on 1990 levels may require a cut of 20 to 30 percent on current output...