EU Says "OK" to More Pollution
*cough* I thought everyone said that the EU was a model for responsible environmental policy, Kyoto, fewer emissions, etc. etc. etc. Blah blah blah. So much better than the evil U.S., blah blah blah.
Well, apparently it's all been just empty words. Empty words, pretty speeches, and lots of pieces of paper that everyone ignores after signing them. The truth is that the EU is a big fat polluter:
The European Union’s flagship plan to cut carbon dioxide emissions and fight global warming has turned into a licence to pump more pollution into the atmosphere, it emerged today. Under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme, big polluters such as power stations have been allocated permits to release certain levels of CO2 into the atmosphere. Those that beat their target are able to trade their excess allocations with businesses that are pumping out more of the greenhouse gas than they have been allowed. . . . But the first report on the system, which was introduced last year, showed today that Britain was one of only six countries in the 21-nation European Union to issue permits last year that required polluters to cut emissions. . . . Most other countries have issued permit allocations that allow industry to increase CO2 emissions by at least one fifth compared with recorded CO2 emissions in their countries in 2005. Lithuania and Latvia have issued permits that allow almost double the volume of CO2 emissions. |