The Kyoto Climate Treaty and the US Administration's Position on It Under President Trump 2016-2020

Abstract

This research examines the position of the United States toward the Kyoto Protocol on climate change (1997), analyzing the historical and political roots of American reservations toward multilateral environmental agreements since the 1970s. The study traces the evolution of U.S. environmental policy from President Bill Clinton’s administration, which signed the treaty without congressional ratification, through George W. Bush’s administration, which rejected its commitments on the grounds of economic harm, to subsequent administrations—particularly that of Donald Trump, which withdrew from the 2017 Paris Agreement under the slogan “America First.” The research argues that these positions reflect a profound internal debate between economic growth imperatives and environmental protection requirements, as well as between economic nationalism and a global vision of climate cooperation. It further shows that despite the United States’ central role in global carbon emissions, it has historically sought to preserve domestic policy autonomy in energy and industrial affairs. Adopting a historical and political analytical approach, the study draws upon official U.S. documents and both Arabic and Western academic sources. It concludes that the American stance on Kyoto embodied an internal struggle between federal bureaucracies and major industrial interests rather than an outright rejection of environmental protection itself