Three years and four months ago, then-Vice President Al Gore hailed the Kyoto agreement, which he personally helped craft, as a breakthrough in addressing climate change. It called on industrial nations to cut heat-trapping emissions to below 1990 levels by 2012. No industrial country has yet ratified the agreement and none, except possibly Britain, is at this time on target to meet its reductions requirements. Attempts to work out mechanisms to implement and enforce its provisions have foundered. At the same time, U.S. carbon dioxide emissions have continued to grow to where they're now nearly 15 percent higher than 1990 and climbing.
Many scientists believe such emissions are causing the Earth to warm up significantly.
The United States will participate in the next round of climate talks in July in Bonn, Germany, administration officials said. But what remains unclear is what proposals U.S. negotiators will take to Bonn, which is supposed to be a followup meeting in which 160 nations hoped to work out an implementation plan for the Kyoto treaty.