US President George Bush is well-known for his opposition to serious action on climate change. Domestically, he has refused to ratify Kyoto, while internationally he has worked to undermine it (chiefly by trying to set up rival agreements which promise - and therefore will deliver - nothing). However, the US is a federal system, and so state governments have taken the lead where the federal government will not. In 2003, north-eastern states formed the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative to establish a joint "cap and trade" scheme to limit their emissions. Earlier in the year, western states followed suit with the Western Regional Climate Action Initiative. And just last week, mid-western states set up their own scheme, the Midwestern Greenhouse Gas Reduction Accord. The membership of these emissions trading and reduction schemes is shown in the map below:
(Map of greenhouse gas agreement membership in the US. RGGI members in blue (observers in light blue), WCI in green (observers in light green), and MGA in red).
While the states have formed three seperate schemes, their markets will be linked to each other and to the global market by the Climate Registry and the International Carbon Action Partnership. So it is effectively one big emissions trading scheme covering most of the US. In other words, most of the US is now effectively "in" Kyoto and working to reduce their emissions - despite Bush's opposition.
