John Kerry: “I emphasize to my colleagues, this sense of the Senate is not about Kyoto. It is not asking us to get involved in Kyoto.…”

“I emphasize to my colleagues, this sense of the Senate is not about Kyoto. It is not asking us to get involved in Kyoto. In fact, the diplomatic issue is no longer Kyoto yes or no. The world understands that we need to move beyond Kyoto. Kyoto is limited in time and in participation. Many of us, myself included, objected to that flaw in Kyoto because it left out many nations. We need to see that Kyoto, however, as a foundation for global cooperation with the principles of binding targets and emissions trading can serve as a blueprint for how to reduce those emissions. Other nations are ready to start a dialogue about the future. Prime Minister Blair is capitalizing on his chairmanship of the G8 to press for broad cooperative action, but the United States alone stands silent and apart from this process. That has to stop. We cannot wait for Kyoto to expire in order to consider the next steps. We need to evaluate options now. We need to signal to the world that we are prepared to shoulder our fair share of the burden of dealing with this problem, and we need to put action behind our words, accepting the principle of binding pollution reduction as a critical way of engaging the developing world. A number of proposals have been put on the table, from a G8 program to promote renewable energy, to technology funding, to development, to the framework convention. We do not suffer from a lack of ideas as to what to do.…”