Kyoto's Impact on the U.S. Business Climate: Hot or Cold?

摘要

Things are starting to heat up and we're not just talking about the Earths atmosphere. In the wake of the Kyoto Protocol going into effect on February 16 after Russia's ratification of the agreement in the fall of 2004, many domestic and foreign companies are beginning to change the way they conduct business in order to take advantage of the new opportunities created by the treaty. In 2001, President Bush withdrew from the 128-nation Kyoto agreement, which seeks to cut carbon dioxide emissions from 1990 levels by five percent by 2012. According to the treaty's proponents, the rationale behind this reduction is to reverse what they view as the dangerous trend of global warming. The president argued that the treaty was too expensive and wrongly excluded developing nations. Of the large industrialized countries, only the United States and Australia refused to join the United Nations' effort. But these two nations account for around one third of global green house gas (GHG) emissions.