European Union: Renewable Energy and Sustainability
Prospects
Many such initiatives have failed either in planning or follow-up. It is unlikely that the US, or Canada would sign on to such agreements as recent history and the dismal failure of the Kyoto Protocol indicates. US climate change negotiator Harlan Watson has in the past said that any significant reduction targets for 2020 are not appropriate in the context of the United States. The main stumbling block in the negotiation of environmental policy and the policy on renewable energy sources is the role developing countries play, and whether they should be held accountable to these same targets. The US has historically refused to make any commitments unless major developing countries such as China and India likewise sign on.
Alisa Gorokhova
