[Unit 3 Project] Kyoto Protocol and Desires for Economic Development and Power (from Goolge Slides)

Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and Desires for Economic Development and Power

John Howard rejected the Kyoto Protocol and said:

“Australia won't ratify the Kyoto Protocol until the ratification of that protocol will protect the long-term national interests of this country…that would disadvantage the resource industries of Australia."

President Bush rejected the Kyoto Protocol and said:

“We’ll be working with our allies to reduce greenhouse gases. But I will not accept a plan that will harm our economy and hurt American workers.”

President Trump quit Paris climate agreement and said:

“which is costing the US a vast fortune”

Revealed: how the oil giant influenced Bush, White House sought advice from Exxon on Kyoto stance: 

President's George Bush's decision not to sign the United States up to the Kyoto global warming treaty was partly a result of pressure from ExxonMobil, the world's most powerful oil company, and other industries, according to US State Department papers seen by the Guardian.

The President who bought power and sold the world

George Bush's decision to ignore global warming and pull the plug on Kyoto is payback for the energy industries which backed him, reports Ed Vulliamy:

Withdrawal by the US from Kyoto tolls a death knell for the treaty because although it accounts for only 4 per cent of the world's population, it is responsible for 25 per cent of the emissions of gases that cause the greenhouse effect. Half of America's industrial might still burn fossil fuels and belches out fumes, while Americans themselves drive heavy trucks and cars further than any other people - to the mall and across the infinite landscape - and even the average household boasts 2.8 television sets and a wealth of electrical appliances. The story behind the singular determination of Bush to fly in the face of world opinion, the sentiments of most Americans and even many in his own government reveals adherence to ideological rigour and payment of debts to the business interests that helped him to the White House - above all, oil and coal. Oil runs through every sinew and vein of the Bush administration; rarely, if ever, has a Western government been so intimately entwined with a single industry. When Bush assumed office, however, oil and other energy industries were in the political cold after eight years of Bill Clinton's environmental record. Prompted by his keenly environmentalist deputy, Al Gore, Clinton had cautiously recommended ratification of Kyoto, but it was flatly rejected in the Senate.