Further Reading
Karenga, Maulana.Kwanzaa: A Celebration of Family,
Community and Culture. Los Angeles: University of
Sankore Press, 1998.
Winbush Riley, Dorothy.The Complete Kwanzaa. New
York: HarperCollins, 1995.
Katherine M. Helm
See also African Americans; Amazon.com; Ange-
lou, Maya; Clinton, Bill; Race relations; Wal-Mart;
WB television network.
Kyoto Protocol
Identification An international agreement to
control global warming by curtailing the
production of greenhouse gases
Date Negotiated December 1-11, 1997
Building on the voluntar y reduction targets of the Frame-
work Convention on Climate Change, negotiated at the Rio
de Janeiro summit in 1992, the Kyoto Protocol provided
that the industrial nations plus the former Soviet Union
and Eastern European countries would reduce the emission
of greenhouse gases an average of five percent in the period
from 2008 to 2012. The treaty entered into force in 2004
when Russia was the final industrial nation save one to
ratify the agreement. The United States has not ratified the
Kyoto Protocol and is not expected to do so.
The 1992 Rio Declaration was based on the recogni-
tion that the production of carbon dioxide and five
other greenhouse gases was helping to cause global
warming. The declaration provided for only volun-
tary reductions. By 1995, it had become evident that
governments must agree to mandatory reductions.
In the spring of 1997, representatives from industri-
alized and developing nations met in Kyoto, Japan,
to negotiate reduction targets. During the talks, it
was agreed that developing nations would be omit-
ted from the first-round obligatory reductions, as
such reductions would impose too great a burden on
these nations. Although developing nations’ output
of greenhouse gases was increasing rapidly, it was
still less than industrialized nations’ emissions.
The U.S. delegation, responding in part to criti-
cism at home, tried to include the less-industrialized
nations in the requirements of the treaty but failed to
win support. Even though the U.S. Senate indicated
its disapproval of what appeared to be the treaty stipu-
lations, the U.S. delegation signed the agreement.
Aware of the opposition in Congress, President Bill
Clinton chose not to submit it to the Senate for ratifi-
cation. President George W. Bush would indicate op-
position to the treaty after he assumed office in 2001.
In order to enter into force, the protocol re-
quired ratification by fifty-five nations, including
countries that had been responsible for 55 percent
of the emissions produced in 1990. Because of U.S.
opposition, it was necessary for all other industrial-
ized nations to ratify the treaty for it to enter into
force. Russia’s ratification of the treaty in November,
2004, led it to enter into force in February, 2005.
The Kyoto Protocol specified targets for reducing
carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases in
the period from 2008 to 2012. The United States was
to reduce emissions by 7 percent from 1990 levels,
the European Union and some other European na-
tions were to reduce emissions by 8 percent, Canada
and Japan were to reduce emissions by 6 percent,
and Russia and Ukraine were to hold emissions con-
stant. The less-developed nations were expected to
try to hold down emissions voluntarily, but no tar-
gets were mandated. The delegates at Kyoto were
aware that less-industrialized nations such as China
would have to reduce the growth in emissions in the
long run if global warming was to be curtailed. A 5.2
percent reduction in emissions below 1990 levels
was expected if all nations met their targets. The pri-
mary target of emission reduction was industry, es-
pecially coal-fired power plants, but agriculture was
also a major source of some greenhouse gases.Opposition in the United States Opposition to the
Kyoto Protocol came from two related groups in the
United States. The first, particularly the representa-
tives of some oil companies and their political
friends, indicated that global warming was not influ-
enced by human action or that its impact was se-
verely overstated; therefore, there was no need for a
reduction in greenhouse gases. By the late 1990’s,
this perspective was becoming increasingly discred-
ited, as most scientists agreed that global warming
was human-caused.
The second group of opponents agreed that
global warming was a problem and that actions
should be taken to reduce greenhouse gas emis-
sions. They argued that the Kyoto Protocol was a
badly flawed agreement, one that would reduce the
competitive position of the United States in theThe Nineties in America Kyoto Protocol 495