Abstract
Taking note of the reality of global warming in the 1990s, and of the human responsibility in this change, political leaders initiated a policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Kyoto Protocol, which came into effect on February 2005, is an amendment of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), assigning mandatory targets to lower greenhouse gas emissions to signatory nations. However, this policy has divided both industrialized countries, not very inclined to discuss their model of growth, and countries of the South, anxious to maintain their projects of development. The US's refusal is the most striking, we can wonder. Is global concern surrounding an environmental agreement such as the Kyoto Protocol an answer to an emergency? Let us first have a look on the Kyoto Treaty's contents, before trying to understand why some countries refuse to ratify it and why so many others keep on trying to make it work.
