Discuss the purpose of and problems with the Kyoto Protocol from the perspective of the United States.

The Kyoto Protocol is an international treaty requiring emissions to be reduced in an effort to reduce the greenhouse effect. The United States was the only leading industrialized nation not to sign the treaty. It had three reasons: (1 ) it competes against countries such as China and India, which were not bound by the treaty because they are developing economies; (2 ) the worldwide cost of compliance was estimated at 700 billion, of which the United States would have had to pay 450 billion; and (3 ) there would have been little short-run benefit to the United States.