In 1997, leaders from 194 nations gathered together in Kyoto, Japan to come up with a sustainable environmental plan that promised to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The treaty they produced, known as the Kyoto Protocol, stated: "The goal is for Annex 1 (developed countries plus economies in transition) to reduce their aggregate anthropogenic carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by at least 5 percent below 1990 levels in the commitment period 2008 to 2012 "[Man98]. This treaty stated that only the highly industrialized and developed nations meet the emission reduction targets but enforced no restraints on developing and less industrialized countries. Some of these countries included emerging economic powers and high producers of greenhouse gas emissions such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa. After initially supporting the Kyoto Protocol, when being elected president, on March 29th 2001, George W. Bush renounced the United States from the Kyoto Protocol. The president had this to say following the withdrawal: "The earth's well-being is also an issue important to America " and it's an issue that should be important to every nation and in every part of the world. My Administration is committed to a leadership role on the issue of climate change. We recognize our responsibility and we will meet it, at home, in our hemisphere, and in the world. " (George W. Bush, 2001).
With the United States consistently producing some of the highest levels of greenhouse gases in the entire world, this action taken by the president was seen as a complete shock to the surrounding world. United Nations. Environmental data shows that: "In 2004 the USA, Australia and Canada were the biggest per-capita emitters with 24, 26 and 23 million tonnes of C02 equivalent emissions per capita "[Cir09]. Bush stated that due to the fact that developing countries and major population centers are exempt from the protocol, it is not a plausible solution for the United States, and would seriously harm their economy.