THE FORUM

摘要

A year ago, the hope was that the U.S. Congress would pass climate change legislation in 2009, followed by the triumphal rollout of a new, enforceable, mandatory program of national greenhouse gas emission reductions at the 15th meeting of the parties to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change in December. Unfortunately, the negotiators and heads of state at the Copenhagen summit failed to pass a real successor to the convention's Kyoto Protocol, which governs emission during the period from 2008 to 2012 and contains enforceable limits for the world's industrial powerhouses.