Under one such arrangement, the Kyoto Protocol, which runs through 2012, signatories agree to cap specific emissions. What is needed now is a successor arrangement in which a larger number of governments, including the United States, China, and India, accept emissions limits or adopt common standards because they recognize that they would be worse off if no country did.
有些国家的政府准备放弃一些主权要素，以应对全球气候变化的挑战。《京都议定书》就是这样一纸协议，它的有效期截至到2012年，之前各缔约国同意共同限制特定种类的排放。现在需要的是一份后续协议，协议中需要包括美国、中国和印度在内的很多政府接受排放限制或共同标准，它们对协议的接受都基于这样一个事实：如果所有的国家都拒绝这项协议，那它们自身的状况将会变得更糟。