Document Type
Paper
Publication Date
2018
Abstract
In the midst of the negotiations leading to the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, the U.S. Senate adopted the “Byrd-Hagel Resolution,” co-sponsored by Senators Robert Byrd of West Virginia and Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. Passed by a vote of 95-0, it reflected the Senate’s view that the international climate change agreement then being negotiated by the Clinton Administration was not on the right track. Specifically, it signaled dissatisfaction with an agreement that would contain legally binding greenhouse gas emissions commitments for developed countries without such commitments in the same time period for developing countries.
By its terms, the Byrd-Hagel Resolution applied not only to the Kyoto Protocol but also to any subsequent climate agreement. It influenced the approaches of the Clinton, Bush, and Obama Administrations to the Kyoto Protocol and international climate policy. Curiously, however, it did not appear to play a role in the evaluation, including by the Trump Administration and the Senate, of whether the United States should continue to participate in the Paris Agreement.
Disciplines
Environmental Law | Law
Recommended Citation
Susan Biniaz,
What Happened to Byrd-Hagel? Its Curious Absence From Evaluations of The Paris Agreement,
Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, Columbia Law School, January 2018
(2018).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/sabin_climate_change/87
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