Kyoto Protocol

From Conservapedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by RobSmith (Talk | contribs) at 15:18, February 17, 2019. It may differ significantly from current revision.

Jump to: navigation, search

The Kyoto Protocol (named after the Japanese city in which it was drafted) is a 1997 liberal treaty backed by the United Nations concerning greenhouse gas emissions. It commits 39 participating industrial nations to a combined 5% reduction (from 1990 levels) in climate-damaging emission by the year 2012.

The stated goal of the treaty is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the signed countries, which supporters say is crucially needed to prevent a global environmental tragedy. Opponents of the treaty argue that ratifying the treaty would greatly harm many US industries while ignoring other high polluting, developing nations such as China and India.[1] For these reasons, the United States, while it negotiated the treaty during the Clinton administration, has only signed the protocol, but has adamantly refused to ratify it. The Senate voted 95-0 not even to bring ratification up for a vote.

The Kyoto Protocol became effective on February 16, 2005, requiring the European Union to reduce its average emissions between the years 2008 and 2012 by 8% relative to 1990 levels.

Enron scandal

In July 1997, Enron CEO Ken Lay met with President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore in the Oval Office. Clinton, Lay, and Gore discussed approval of the Kyoto protocols on carbon emissions.[2]

An internal Enron memo says the treaty will, "do more to promote Enron's business than will almost any other regulatory initiative outside of restructuring the energy and natural gas industries in Europe and the United States." Lay told Enron employees Bill Clinton solicited Lay's views "in advance of a climate treaty to be negotiated at an international conference" And Lay said Clinton agreed to support Lay's proposal of a carbon emissions trading exchange from which Enron planned to profit hugely while American consumers paid steep price increases for electricity and natural gas.[3]

The Republican Senate rejected the Kyoto treaty by a 95-to-0 vote on August 15, 1997.[4]

See also

References

  1. USA Today, Kyoto Era Begins.
  2. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/transcripts/gopresponse_memo.htm
  3. Robert Schlesinger, "Enron Ties May Also Tar Democrats; Company Lobbied Clinton, Donated To Top Legislators," The Boston Globe, January 24, 2002
  4. http://talking_points.tripod.com/

External links