Abstract
The policy of United States government toward climate change poses a puzzling paradox. U.S.-funded research has played a major role in identifying the threat of climate change and in developing climate models, and American scientists have been among the leading voices in drawing attention to the challenges it poses to the global community. Vice President Al Gore, who enjoyed unprecedented power and influence for a vice president in the Clinton administration, focused on climate change in his 1992 book, Earth in the Balance, calling it the most important environmental problem we face. But U.S. policy commitments to addressing the threat of climate change have been quite weak. The United States will fall far short of its goal of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by the year 2000 to 1990 levels, as agreed to in the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change (FCCC), and it led the opposition, until recently, to binding commitments for reducing emissions. Even though the Clinton administration agreed to a seven percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 in the Kyoto Protocol, there has been great opposition to binding emission reductions in Congress.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
R. A. Kerr, “Hansen vs. the World on the Greenhouse Threat”, Science 244 (1989): 431–43; letters section, Science 245 (1989): 451–52.
James A. Baker III, “Remarks by the Honorable James A. Baker III, Secretary of State,” before the Response Strategies Working Group, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Washington, DC: Department of State, 30 January 1989.
Gary C Bryner, Blue Skies, Green Politics: The Clean Air Act of 1990 and Its Implementation (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 1995): 114–16.
Gary C Bryner, ed., Global Warming and the Challenge of International Cooperation (Provo, UT: David M. Kennedy Center/Brigham Young University, 1992): 103–04.
Gary C Bryner, U.S. Land and Natural Resources Policy (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998): 195–96.
U.S. Department of State, The Climate Change Action Plan (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of State, 1993).
U.S. Department of Energy, The Climate Change Action Plan: Technical Supplement (Springfield, VA.: National Technical Information Service, 1994): 9–10.
Christopher Flavin, “Climate Policy: Showdown in Berlin,” 8 World-Watch (July/August 1995): 8–9.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 1995: The Science of Climate Change (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996): 4–5.
Gary Bryner, “Congressional Decisions About Regulatory Reform: The 104th and 105th Congresses,” in Better Environmental Decisions: Strategies for Governments, Businesses, and Communities, edited by Ken Sexton, Alfred A. Marcus, K. William Easter, and Timothy D. Burkhardt (Washington, DC: Island Press, 1999): 91–112.
Charles Pope, “Opposition to Global Warming Treaty Is Cropping Up in Spending Bills,” Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report (1 August 1998): 2107–08, at 2108.
Christopher Flavin, “Last Tango in Buenos Aires,” World-Watch 11 (November/December, 1998): 10–18.
John Houghton, Global Warming: The Complete Briefing (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987).
Ross Gelbspan, The Heat is On (Reading, MA: Addison Wesley, 1997).
U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment, Building Energy Efficiency (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1992).
Amory Lovins, Soft Energy Paths (New York: Harper Collins, 1979);
Lovins, World Energy Strategies (New York: Harper Colophon, 1980).
Walter A. Rosenbaum, Environmental Policy and Politics (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 1998): 261–96
James L. Sundquist, Congressional Reform and Effective Government (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, revised edition, 1992);
James A. Thurber, Divided Democracy: Cooperation and Conflict Between the President and Congress (Washington, DC: CQ Press, 1991).
Robert D. Putman, “Diplomacy and Domestic Politics: the Logic of Two-Level Games,” International Organization, vol. 48, no. 2 (1988): 427–60.
National Academy of Public Administration, Setting Priorities, Getting Results: A New Direction for EPA (Washington, DC: NAPA, 1995).
Christopher Flavin and Seth Dunn, “Climate of Opportunity: Renewable Energy After Kyoto,” Renewable Energy Policy Project Issue Brief no. 11 (July 1998).
J. Clarence Davies and Jan Mazurek, Pollution Control in the United States: Evaluating the System (Washington, DC: Resources for the Future, 1998).
Michael E. Kraft, “Environmental Policy in Congress: From Consensus to Gridlock,” in Environmental Policy in the 1990s, edited by Norman J. Vig and Michael E. Kraft (Washington, DC: CQ Press, fourth edition, 2000): 121–44.
Ed Gillespie and Rob Schellhas, eds. Contract with America (New York: Times Books, 1994): 125–41.
Deborah Stone, Policy Paradox (New York: W.W. Norton, 1997).
Anne Schneider and Helen Ingram, Policy Design for Democracy (Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas Press, 1997).
John Lanchbery, “Expectations for the Climate Talks in Buenos Aires,” Environment 40: (October 1998): 16–20, 42–45.
Curtis Moore and Alan Miller. Green Gold: Japan, Germany, and the United States, and the Race for Environmental Technology (Boston: Beacon Press, 1994).
R. A. Kerr, “The Next Oil Crisis Looms Large—And Perhaps Close,” Science 281 (1998): 1128–31.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2000 Paul G. Harris
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bryner, G. (2000). Congress and the Politics of Climate Change. In: Harris, P.G. (eds) Climate Change and American Foreign Policy. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-62978-7_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-62978-7_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, New York
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-62980-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-62978-7
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)