(5) The United States, along with 189 other 
countries, is a party to the Convention, done at New 
York May 9, 1992, and entered into force in 1994. 
The Convention’s stated objective is ‘‘to achieve sta-
bilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the at-
mosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous 
anthropogenic interference with the climate system’’. 
(6) The Kyoto Protocol to the Convention was 
adopted by the third Convention Conference of the 
Parties (COP–3) in December 1997, in Kyoto, 
Japan, and stipulated legally binding reductions in 
greenhouse gas emissions at an average of 5.2 per-
cent below 1990 levels for industrialized countries, 
but it did not specify policies for its implementation. 
The Kyoto Protocol also did not stipulate binding re-
ductions in greenhouse gas emissions for rapidly in-
dustrializing countries like China, India, and Brazil. 
(7) Before negotiations were completed on the 
mechanisms for implementing Kyoto Protocol com-
mitments on greenhouse gas emissions, George W. 
Bush took office as President of the United States, 
and in March 2001, announced opposition to contin-
ued negotiations over implementation of the Pro-
tocol, stating that the Protocol was ‘‘fatally flawed’’ 
from the Administration’s point of view. 
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(8) President Bush unveiled an ‘‘alternative’’ 
strategy to the Kyoto Protocol for halting global 
warming on February 14, 2002. The President’s 
plan did not contain any international component to 
amend or supplant the Kyoto Protocol or any kind 
of blueprint for committing major developing econo-
mies such as China, India, and Brazil to reduce fu-
ture greenhouse gas emission. The President’s plan 
set a voluntary ‘‘greenhouse gas intensity’’ target for 
the United States that specified an 18 percent re-
duction in ‘‘emissions intensity’’ by 2012. This re-
duction which would allow actual emissions to in-
crease by at least 12 percent over the same period. 
(9) On February 16, 2005, after Russia’s ratifi-
cation, the Kyoto Protocol entered into force. With 
entry into force, the emissions targets of the Pro-
tocol became legally binding commitments for those 
industrialized countries that ratified the Protocol. 
Because the United States and Australia did not 
ratify the Protocol, and because developing countries 
are not subject to its limits, the Protocol currently 
restricts the emissions of countries accounting for 
only 32 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. 
(10) The Kyoto Protocol required that parties 
to the Protocol begin negotiating in 2005 toward a 
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second round of commitments to begin after the ex-
piration of the first emissions budget period in 2012. 
The eleventh Convention Conference of the Parties 
(COP–11) in November and December 2005 in 
Montreal, Canada launched the negotiations on the 
second round of commitments by parties to the Pro-
tocol and initiated a dialogue (a ‘‘parallel process’’) 
under the Convention that engaged both the United 
States and developing countries in discussions on fu-
ture efforts. 
(11) At the twelfth Convention Conference of 
the Parties (COP–12) in November 2006 in Nairobi, 
Kenya, parties continued discussions on a second 
round of commitments under the Kyoto Protocol as 
a successor to the first commitment period (2008 
through 2012) and, in the parallel process, discussed 
enhanced cooperation under the Convention that 
would engage countries that did not have commit-
ments under the Protocol. 
(12) At a summit in Brussels, Belgium in 
March 2007, the head of governments of the Euro-
pean Union committed its Member States to cut 
greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent below 1990 lev-
els by 2020 and committed to move this target up 
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to 30 percent if the United States and other major 
emitters joined the commitment. 
(13) On April 17, 2007, the United Nations Se-
curity Council held its first ever ‘‘open meeting’’ on 
the impact of climate change on international secu-
rity. British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett, in 
her capacity as President of the Security Council, 
declared in her opening statement that the Council 
has a ‘‘security imperative’’ to tackle climate change 
because it can exacerbate problems that cause con-
flicts and because it threatens the entire planet. 
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told 
the Council that ‘‘issues of energy and climate 
change have implications for peace and security’’. 
(14) Working Group III of the IPCC met from 
April 30 through May 4, 2007, in Bangkok, Thai-
land to assess technologies and policies needed to 
avert dangerous climate change and to provide back-
ground for negotiations on a post-2012 climate 
change regime. The draft report by the IPCC Work-
ing Group III concludes that by quickly adopting 
technological options that are available or are being 
developed, the global concentration of greenhouse 
gases in the atmosphere can be stabilized at 450– 
550 parts per million (ppm). The IPCC scientists 
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believe that a 450 to 550 ppm ceiling might limit 
the global rise in temperatures to no more than 3.6 
degrees Fahrenheit and avert impacts of escalating 
scale, scope, and costs, potentially including the de-
stabilization of large polar ice sheets that could con-
tribute to long-term, catastrophic sea level rise at 
higher temperatures. 
(15) At the Group of Eight (G–8) Summit 
scheduled to be held in Heiligendamm, Germany in 
June 2007, climate change and energy have been 
placed at the top of the policy agenda and during 
the Summit, the G–8 is scheduled to have a dialogue 
with China, India, South Africa, Mexico, and Brazil 
on the issue. 
(16) The United Nations Secretary-General 
Ban ki-Moon has indicated that one of his top goals 
is to forge a more comprehensive agreement under 
the Convention to ensure there is no gap when the 
first commitment period under the Kyoto Protocol 
ends in 2012. In order to reach this goal, critical ne-
gotiations involving all of the major greenhouse gas 
emitters, along with the vulnerable countries, must 
be initiated immediately and be completed by 2009. 
On May 1, 2007, the Secretary-General named three 
Special Envoys on Climate Change to assist in ‘‘con-
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