Climate Change Policy: Next Steps

Is it time to renew American leadership on global warming? The long-dormant and controversial Kyoto Protocol will enter into force on February 16, albeit without the United States. While disagreements remain over the treaty,
its entry into force provides an important opportunity to examine lessons learned from the last decade and to consider next steps in climate change policy and diplomacy.

At this Brookings briefing, a distinguished group of speakers will discuss the current state of climate change policy and address questions such as:

• Does Kyoto demonstrate that the rest of the world is defining the international agenda without the United States and questioning America’s commitment to universal values such as environmental stewardship?
• Or is Kyoto’s apparent success likely to be short-lived, when Europe and Japan fail to meet their commitments and most nations refuse to extend the treaty’s system of legally binding emissions targets beyond 2012?
• Is the Bush administration’s technology approach sound, or is a new U.S. plan for global climate cooperation needed?