The Collapse of the Kyoto Protocol: And the Struggle to Slow Global Warming

In the winter of 2000, international talks on the implementation of planned emissions standards again faltered, a resolution again postponed. In The Collapse of the Kyoto Protocol and the Struggle to Slow Global Warming, scientist David G. Victor of the Council on Foreign Relations parses the problem-ridden 1997 agreement. Victor describes the hasty initial negotiations, the origin of an emissions trading imbroglio whereby governments would purchase emissions credits from other countries rather than meeting ""their Kyoto obligations within their borders,"" the impossible costs of ""Kyoto's fantasyland"" and the protocol's inevitable failure. But in the failure lies the possibility for a manageable solution, Victor notes. Publication coincides with Earth Day. ( Apr. 20)