On Sat, 28 Apr 2001, JC Helary wrote:
> i heard on a different list that the kyoto protocol had been sent to
> congress for ratification and that nobody supported it. both info seem
> a little weird
I think your instincts on both points are correct. I'm almost positive the Kyoto Protocol has never been sent to the Senate for ratification. (Footnote: "Congress" refers to the Senate and the House of Representatives taken together; only the Senate ratifies treaties.) I think the vote you heard about was a non-binding "sense of the Senate" vote that proclaimed in 1997 that the Senate would not ratify the treaty unless it was amended to make provision for "meaningful participation" by developing countries, especially China. That vote was 95-0. Subsequently, the Clinton Administration's position was always that they would not send it to the Senate until such provision was made. This was never likely to happen soon, if ever. The position of developing countries, and Europe, was that the treaty shold be ratified first and *then* the developing countries should be brought on board. So since the Clinton Administration had no more chance in 2000 than in 1998 of getting it ratified, I'm pretty sure they never submitted it to the Senate. But what did happen recently, as you probably know, is that President Bush bluntly said in March that "the treaty was dead," i.e., he would never submit it.
> could anyone suggest URLs?
I found a lot of URLs by submitting "kyoto protocol senate ratification" to http://www.metacrawler.com/ I'm sure they would work on any other engine. Two you might look at are:
Linkname: What if the US Doesn't Ratify the Kyoto Protocol?
URL: http://www.globalchange.org/editall/98oct20.htm
and
Linkname: US State Department FAQ on the Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change
URL: http://www.state.gov/www/global/oes/fs_kyoto_climate_980115.html
Michael __________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com