Trying to Control Global Warming

If the countries of the United States and China continue to emit greenhouse gases into the air at the rate they are now, it will harm poor areas such as Africa more then it will themselves. The United States has always been a proponent of helping other countries by using their resources. In this case no resources would be needed. The United States and China are countries that are fit to deal with the problems that can be caused by global warming. On the other hand, countries in Africa would be at more of a risk because of the resources they have compared to what the United States and China have.
The greenhouse gases being emitted into the atmosphere are not only leading to a higher temperature on earth but they are also causing huge economic losses. Although they have no come up with an exact number of dollars per ton of carbon or per ton of carbon monoxide the cost is becoming increasingly expensive (Wikipedia "global warming"). If it is costing it so much to deal with the problems of global warming why won't we come up with a better system to deal with it? In my mind the first step with be to try and enact the Kyoto Protocol, because it seems that all it is doing is being a label for something that has never been put to use. The United States would either need to hop on board with the Protocol, or come up with a better solution that other countries would buy into.
There is going to need to be drastic improvements within the economies of the United States and China if we want to turn this problem around. Countries all over the world look at the United States and China as the benchmarks when it comes to their actions. If both of these countries can lead by example there will be a better chance of other countries buying in to the theory that maybe global warming can be controlled.