ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces an explanation for United States (US) policy toward international environmental equity. Bush administration, like President Reagan's, generally opposed new funding and concessional technology transfer to the developing countries, and there was no desire to take responsibility for America's flagrant and disproportionate pollution of the global atmosphere. President Bush went to Rio with little in the way of new funds for sustainable development or commitments to take on burdens of cleaning up the global environment. According to Michael Hatch, the US position on the burdens and benefits of agreements on climate change were results of American domestic politics, international negotiations, and the nature of the climate change issue itself. The US government slowly come to recognize that extinction of species—the loss of biodiversity—had the potential to harm Americans and US economy. The Bill Clinton administration took a more sympathetic position on international equity as it relates to climate change issues and the Framework Convention on Climate Change.
