The fact that developing countries whose energy use is climbing, are not included in the Kyoto protocol has become a major bone of contention in the domestic debate over global warming in the United States.
George Bush raises the spectre of their growing emissions. But an average American citizen is still responsible for around 20 times the carbon dioxide emissions of a person from India and 300 times that of someone from Mozambique.

Opponents of the Kyoto protocol argue that poor nations should also be required to reduce their emissions. Most developing countries reject this position. They say that the industrialized countries are responsible for virtually all the warming that has taken place so far, thus they should reduce their emissions before requiring developing countries to do so. Indeed the G8 - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK and the US - are the motor behind global warming. They account for virtually half (47%) of global emissions of carbon dioxide.

G8 versus the rest of the world
Source of world CO2 emissions from consumption
and flaring of fossil fuels, 1999

The international climate negotiations that stalled last November in The Hague were resumed at a new session from 16 to 27 July, in Bonn, Germany. In January and February 2001, governments from around the world approved a new global consensus on the science, impacts and solutions to global warming. The situation is crying out for urgent action by industrialized nations to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions. The question for July's Climate Summit is whether governments will back up their words with an agreement on the rules of the Kyoto Protocol. Time's running out for making the Kyoto climate treaty an effective basis for the deeper cuts in global warming pollution that have to be made in the coming decades.

Among the main areas of disagreement between the more-progressive European Union and the group involving the US, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Norway and Russia are:

The extent to which domestic action to cut CO2 emissions in industrialized countries should take priority over buying and selling emissions rights or claiming credit for CO2-control projects set up in developing countries.

The extent to which priority is given to preventing CO2 emissions at source rather than planting trees to try and temporarily soak up CO2 from the atmosphere.

Climate Summit, November 2000 was the first global conference on climate change of the 21st century, intended to finalize rules for finally bringing the Kyoto Protocol into operation. Governments agreed on legally-binding emission reduction targets in Kyoto back in 1997. But the rich nations missed a golden opportunity in November 2000 to make a break with their polluting past.

The United States, Japan, Canada and Australia brought November's talks to a halt. They insisted on exploiting loopholes in the Kyoto agreement that would have allowed them to avoid cutting their global warming pollution while still claiming to be meeting their Kyoto targets. This proved too much for the European Union to accept. The Bush Administration (2001-present) The Administration of President George W. Bush is currently conducting a cabinet-level review of climate change science and policy "Action on Climate Change Review Initiatives (2001)".

On June 11, 2001, President Bush announced initiatives to advance the science of climate change, to spur technological innovation, and to promote cooperation in the Western Hemisphere and beyond. In this memo released July 13, the President is announcing the first set of actions that the Cabinet has taken to date to advance these initiatives. Kyoto Protocol, Nations Agreed to Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions, 1997

Binding targets for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions were agreed for the first time by major industrial nations meeting at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Kyoto on 1-11 December 1997.

For more detailed information about the UN Climate Convention, visit the official site

Impact on Muslim countries

Muslim's duty towards the environment