In 1997, Vice President A1 Gore flies to Kyoto, Japan, to break a diplomatic logjam over a multinational treaty aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions that are blamed for global warming. The agreement places more restrictions on industrially developed nations, such as the United States, than on developing nations, such as India and China. Sensing no chance of passage, Democratic President Bill Clinton does not submit the treaty to the Senate. When Gore runs for President in 2000, he wins the popular vote but loses in the Electoral College. The victor, President George W. Bush, promptly announces that the United States will never sign the Kyoto Treaty.