In 1996, as preparations for the Kyoto climate change conference began, the Chrétien and Klein governments in Alberta offered new incentives for oil sands extraction. The Kyoto Protocol, adopted in 1997, required nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. While most industrialized countries ratified it, the United States, Australia, and Monaco did not. By 2002, the Chrétien government faced growing political pressure to ratify the protocol, despite opposition from the Progressive Conservatives and Canadian Alliance, and Canada’s emissions exceeding Kyoto targets. Public concern over climate change grew, making it a dominant issue in the third wave of environmental concern. Later, Harper’s government, skeptical of the Kyoto Protocol and climate science, withdrew Canada, making it the only country to do so.