Kerry, the USA and Kyoto

[rja211077]

has Kerry said whether or not he'll ratify the Kyoto protocol if he makes it to the White House in November?

[darth vader]

because russia have also said they'll not ratify unless the yanks do, it's gonna be a case of "i'll do it if you do it" so i assume he's standing off and waiting to see what Putin will do/say

[sylvday]

Environmental issues are of little interest to the US electorate, so Kerry will probably steer clear of them, so far as he is able. He would get very few extra votes by saying that he would ratify Kyoto; but might well lose many, as ratification would probably mean dearer gas (petrol).

[lorax]

Hi I'm a former staffer in the US Senate. The president wouldn't decide on his own whether or not to ratify a treaty--that's decided by our Senate. Our Constitution (article II, sec. 2, yes I had to look that up--http://www.house.gov/Constitution/Constitution.html) requires a 2/3 majority for ratification. It would take a great deal of political will for that to happen, and seems unlikely, especially if the Republicans retain control of the Senate or there isn't a wide margin for the Democrats (but stranger things have happened). If you look at his campaign website, it says he'll "re-engage" on climate change. See also http://www.globalwarming.org/article.php?uid=622 and http://www.iht.com/cgi-bin/generic.cgi?template=articleprint .tmplh&ArticleId=513306, which asserts that even environmentalists admit that now we couldn't comply with the terms of Kyoto. My understanding is that Russia is heading towards ratifying it--http://forests.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=31890. BTW, keep up the good work, Europe! I'll be at the polls in November (if the terrorists or some accident don't get me first, and assuming they're not postponed!)

[lorax]

As far as actual actions go, he did vote in favor of the Climate Stewardship Act (amdt 2028 to S. 139) in October 2003. For more information, see http://thomas.loc.gov/