EU Nations Fail to Adhere to Kyoto
I don't know about you, but I seem to remember a lot of EU nations and various environmentalists berating and scolding the US for not signing the Kyoto Treaty.
If you want to criticize the US, fine. Go ahead. But if you're going to scold about emissions, you should try not to be hypocritical. A new report points out that a majority of EU Kyoto-signers are failing miserably to meet their own treaty obligations.
Many of the European nations responsible for coercing the United States to remain committed to combating climate change are named and shamed today as major polluters of the environment. A remarkable report has discovered Britain stands almost alone among 15 EU nations in making strides towards honouring Kyoto commitments to cut greenhouse gases. The London-based think-tank, the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), has found that ten of the 15 European Union signatories to the Kyoto Protocol will miss their targets by 2010 without urgent action. The worst offenders are Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Italy, each up to 20 per cent off target. Only Britain, Sweden and France are remotely on target. The poorly performing nations are among the many who have criticised the US and President George Bush - who early in his presidency declared Kyoto "dead" - for refusing to sign up to the agreement because of fears it would limit economic growth. |
Hm! Sounds like another example of "Do as I say, not do as I do." Get your own houses in order, self-righteous EU Kyoto-lovers. Besides, if I were you, I would be worrying a LOT more about China's emissions . . .
Link xie-xie to Buzzurro.
UPDATE 1: Related post here by a professor emeritus of biogeography at the University of London:
. . . many countries which take the 'moral high ground' in public are quietly the very worst offenders. Hypocritical Canada has seen its emissions rise by 24% (on the Kyoto-base 1990-levels); Japan, which gave the name to the original Kyoto Protocol, by 18%; and the statistics for some of the ever-pious European countries take the breath away - Spain up by 42%, Portugal up by 37%, and merry Ireland and Greece up by 26%. In contrast, the US - the non-ratifier of Kyoto, note - has seen its emissions rise by only 13% . . . |
UPDATE 2: Some rather harsh commentary on the IPPR findings.
Kyoto was never meant to be an excuse for the self-righteous among nations to preen themselves on the global stage while doing nothing concrete to meet their own grandiose pledges. Yet, as the date nears by which action is supposed to have been taken, it is increasingly clear that this is the case. If Europe and Canada cannot back up their fine words with deeds, how can they ever hope to persuade the US of the worthiness of Kyoto? More to the point, how can they have any impact on China and the rapidly industrialising nations of Asia, whose projected emissions levels are likely to make the sacrifices made by countries such as Britain completely irrelevant? |