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International Environmental Policy: Interests and the Failure of the Kyoto Process

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Boehmer-Christiansen and Kellow candidly argue that the Kyoto Protocol (2001) was not as successful as the earlier Montreal Protocol because of conflicting political interests. Since the mid-1980s efforts have been made to combat global warming by reducing the emission of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, generated by the combustion of fossil fuels, including coal and oil. The Kyoto Protocol to the Framework Convention on Climate Change was finally signed - without the USA - in November 2001 in Marrakesh. Leaders of the United States (the largest emitter of greenhouse gases) refused to sign the protocol, citing economic unfairness, scientific uncertainty, and objecting to UN-dominated globalization. The authors argue that, until individual states' political interests are reconciled, scientific findings will have no weight. This book contributes to the literature on global environmental policy, but given its sophisticated terminology, it is best suited for advanced graduate students and scholars of environmental policy. It should be read along with other recent books, such as David G. Victor's The Collapse of the Kyoto Protocol and the Struggle to Slow Global Warming (Princeton University Press, 2001). -Johanna Granville, PhD (Stanford U.)