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By the end of the Bonn negotiations in July 2001, the effectiveness of the Kyoto Protocol had already been substantially weakened.
Emission reductions of 80 percent are needed if dangerous climate change is to be prevented.
After two weeks of negotiations at the climate negotiations in Marrakech, Morocco (2001), the fine details of the protocol's implementation were ironed out.
Now that the protocol's architecture was in place, government parties had no excuse to delay ratifying and implementing it, and many have already done so.
However, the protocol is just a small start in what must be an ongoing and ever increasing commitment to reduce greenhouse gases globally.
Bush, climate and the Exxon problem.
In late March 2001, US President George Bush announced that the US was abandoning the protocol.
The US alternative is very strong on talk, but very weak on targets and timetables for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The US will try to postpone the hard choices to a time in the future when they will be much harder and more expensive to take and most likely when it is too late to reverse the damage being done to the world's climate.
The influence of the fossil fuel industry on US Government energy policy has been divisive and fundamental.
The industry's financial support during the election campaign is now paying off for its policies, which are extremely damaging to the climate. The biggest offender is Exxon.
While the rest of the world is trying to stop global warming and protect the planet for future generations, Exxon is denying the link between fossil fuel emissions and climate change as well as busy drilling for more oil and polluting the atmosphere.
What's worse, Exxon is doing its best to stop other countries' attempts to prevent the world from heating up.
To find out more about Exxon and its attempts to undermine global action on climate change click here: www.stopesso.org
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