The Obama Administration is negotiating a new version of the Kyoto Protocol, t he international pact that intended to guide global initiatives on combating climate change. The main difference in the new pact from the original is the absence of a free pass to China and India âÄî and, hopefully, the United States. Former President George W. Bush refused to sign the original treaty, citing concerns that two of the worldâÄôs biggest polluters, China and India, were left absent from the agreement. So, naturally, the agreement proved ineffective, as China, India and the United States were all free from its limitations. Even the countries who did sign the pact are finding they are not even close to the original goals it laid out. There was no reason for countries to switch from their dirty financial paradise to a greener, albeit more expensive, world. It nonetheless appears that the United States is taking the lead in creating a legitimate treaty. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton highlighted climate change on her China trip, and other western countries are giddy after getting wind that President Barack Obama is backing the new effort. âÄúThe No. 1 thing will be for everyone to see that the U.S. is on an urgent and transformational path to a low carbon economy âÄî that would have a galvanizing effect,âÄù John Ashton, the British foreign secretaryâÄôs special representative for climate change, told The New York Times. If countries do not have financial incentives to switch to environmental clean technology, action will be indefinitely delayed. The U.S. has the economical might and capitol to make green technology and clean energy standards more in a global economy. Other countries will follow.