International Environment: U.S. Actions to Fulfill Commitments Under Five Key Agreements

摘要

Because environmental problems do not respect national boundaries, the United States and other nations have entered into numerous international environmental agreements to address the causes and consequences of such problems as climate change, ozone depletion, and trade in endangered species. These agreements typically provide that the parties will undertake various actions to improve the environment. Some provisions are specific and measurable (such as having the parties establish domestic programs, for example, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, or having them periodically report their progress). Others are more general and therefore difficult to measure (such as having the parties coordinate with each other). This report examines the United States' actions to fulfill its commitments under five key international environmental agreements. These agreements relate to climate change (Framework Convention), Desertification (Desertification Convention), the earth's ozone layer (Montreal Protocol), endangered species (CITES), and North American environmental cooperation (North American Agreement). We examined U.S. actions to fulfill specific commitments, the processes and methods that federal agencies use to track these actions, and the results of independent evaluations of these actions for each of the selected agreements.