Political Quotes

“Mr. President, as Secretary of State John Kerry prepares to sign the United States on to the Paris climate agreement on April 22-- that is Earth Day--2 days from now, there are lessons from past international climate agreements, namely the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, that we would be remiss to ignore. Let's keep in mind that the meeting they had was the 21st annual meeting. This is the big United Nations meeting, when everyone tries to get 196 countries to come in and have mandatory emissions reductions. It hasn't worked in 21 years, and it will not work this year either. The situation they are facing now is kind of embarrassing. Let's just call the Paris Agreement what it is. It is a political stunt for the President to do what President Clinton was going to do in the Kyoto Protocol back in 1997. To recap, in 1997, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change adopted the Kyoto Protocol, which set forth binding targets and timetables for greenhouse gas emission reductions for developed countries such as the United States and the European Union. Meanwhile, developing countries such as China, India, and Brazil got a free pass. In fact, the Kyoto Protocol exempted 80 percent of the world from greenhouse gas emission reductions. That was back in 1997. I could talk extensively about how it was known then that without developing countries, Kyoto would produce no meaningful impact on global climate change or reductions.…”