Kyoto Calamity

http://www.rep-am.com/articles/2007/08/27/opinion/280299.txt

Monday, August 27, 2007 6:11 AM EDT


Kyoto calamity


More bad news from holier-than-America Europe: Great Britain won't meet its Kyoto Protocol target of a 20 percent reduction in emissions of six greenhouse gases by 2010, and chances of achieving that goal by 2020 are almost as bleak.

The admission by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs merely confirms what Cambridge University and others have been saying for years. Britain, like most of the rest of Europe, Canada and scores of other global-warming citadels throughout the world, is hopelessly out of compliance. About the only nations on target to live up to their Kyoto obligations are China, India and the other exempt countries.

Even Kyoto's homeland isn't pulling its weight. Japan's emissions will rise by another 0.9 percent by March 2011, putting it on course to exceed its Kyoto limits by at least 8 percent, according to a government report. Japan has done well in reducing emissions by industry, but come 2012, emissions are likely to be up 15 percent from homes and 30 percent from offices vs. 1990, the Kyoto baseline year.

Consequently, Japan, like Britain, is looking at ways to reduce emissions from households. Can steep carbon taxes and costly emissions mandates on homeowners be far behind?

The fact is that except for the exempt nations, no Kyoto ratifier can do what it is supposed to under the treaty without inflicting severe damage on its economy. And even if it could, there's no guarantee the cost and sacrifice would have any effect on the climate. It's a stark reality that has yet to hit home in Connecticut and other Northeast states, which have signed the unconstitutional "Kyoto Lite" pact with the eastern Canadian provinces that like Kyoto has done little to curb greenhouse-gas emissions.

The more sensible approach is the market-driven the rest of America is following, a strategy that is balancing realistic environmental-protection goals with economic reality.