Jeff Bingaman: “last week the Russian Federation began the process of ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. Russia's…”

“last week the Russian Federation began the process of ratifying the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. Russia's ratification is the crucial step that will bring the Kyoto Protocol into force as an international agreement. In the initial stages of the negotiations, the Senate made clear that we would not be willing to sign any agreement on global warming that did not include scheduled commitments for the developing world in addition to the commitments that were being asked of ourselves. This was not a refusal to participate in the Kyoto negotiations, but it was a guide for what we would find acceptable if we were to actually enter into a treaty. The Bush administration misrepresented that guide and decided to completely walk away from international negotiations on the issue. Now it looks as though a majority of the world will begin to move forward on the issue of global climate change without U.S. participation. President Bush's decision was a profound and strategic mistake for our country. The protocol is moving forward now and the United States has very little to say about the direction that it will take. The administration has compounded the error of dropping out of the world climate discussion by failing to come up with a viable climate change policy of its own. Relying solely on voluntary measures as the basis for our climate change strategy has proven to be ineffective in slowing the growth of our own greenhouse gas emissions.”