4. The Kyoto Protocol and the Leakage/Competitiveness Issue The Kyoto Protocol on Global Climate Change, negotiated in 1997, is the most ambitious attempt at a multilateral environment agreement to date. The task of addressing Climate Change while satisfying the political constraints of the various factions (particularly, the US, EU, and developing countries) was an inherently impossible task. Most economists emphasize that the agreement as it was written at Kyoto would impose large economic costs on the United States and other countries, while making only a minor dent in the problem. The Clinton Administration’s interpretation of the Protocol insisted on so-called flexibility mechanisms, such as international trading of emission permits, to bring the economic costs down to a modest range. Without the flexibility mechanisms, the United States would be out of the Protocol, even if the subsequent administration had been a more environmentally friendly than it was. (Ironically, now that European and other countries are trying to go ahead without the United States, they are finding that they cannot manage without such trading mechanisms.)
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