The Kyoto Protocol and US Ratification

December 11, 1997. Over 192 countries meet in Kyoto to expand the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and commit to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The Kyoto Protocol. The fundamental basis of the treaty is that global warming exists and that human-made carbon emissions are the cause of this climate phenomenon.

The history of global warming and climate change probably extends back for millions of years, ever since our planet Earth formed an atmosphere. But human-made carbon emissions, contributing to the greenhouse effect and intensifying global warming, extends back a couple of centuries. In the late eighteenth century, technological innovations originating primarily from Great Britain and the increasing use of fossil fuels led to exponentially increasing carbon emissions from human activities. 

Today, the United States accounts for 1/4 of the world's carbon emissions. Despite this culpability the United States faces in contributing to global warming, it still has refused to sign onto the Kyoto Protocol, officially backing out of it in 2001. At that moment, the United States specifically reasoned that the evidence behind global warming was not scientifically sound, that the economy would be harmed as a result of the Protocol, and probably most reasonably, that the Protocol exempted a lot of developing countries from lowering their emissions. 

December 31, 2012. The Kyoto Protocol expires. However, ironically enough, the first industrialized country to meet the standards set by the Kyoto Protocol is the United States, with CO2 emissions in the United States being the lowest since 1994. Overall, this shows that the international struggle against climate change holds both bad and good, and a lot of uncertainty, too.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/07/26/world/kyoto-protocol-fast-facts/

https://wattsupwiththat.com/2013/04/05/usa-meets-kyoto-protocol-without-ever-embracing-it/