Prologue

The framework convention on climate change was signed by 154 countries at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992. It represents—simultaneously—a success for United States diplomacy, a long-standing tension in American foreign policy, and a failure of presidential leadership.

There is little question that the climate change issue presents a difficult foreign policy challenge to the United States. The US is in the unenviable position of being at the same time the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, the recognized leader of the international system, and the home of the world's most influential environmental organizations. The US therefore has no place to hide from the climate change issue at home or abroad and is universally perceived as both the largest part of the problem and the largest part of the solution. As much as President Bush and his closest associates may have wished for this issue simply to go away, it has refused to do so. In these circumstances, it is perhaps surprising that the final agreement signed in Rio is as well-designed and as forward-looking as it is.