No go on Kyoto

The Kyoto Treaty will do little to solve the carbon-dioxide problem. Masquerading as a global environmental policy, Kyoto exempts half of the world's population and nine of the top 20 emitters of carbon dioxide – including China and India – from its emissions reduction requirements, says Pete du Pont, former governor of Delaware and chairman of the National Center for Policy Analysis.

As the Wall Street Journal recently pointed out, almost none of the nations that signed on are meeting Kyoto's requirements:

Thirteen of the original 15 European signatories will likely miss the 2010 emission reduction targets.

Spain will miss its target by 33 percentage points and Denmark by 25 points.

Targets aside, Greece and Canada have seen their emissions rise by 23 and 24 per cent, respectively, since 1990.

As for America, its emissions have increased 16 per cent, so it is doing better than many of the Kyoto nations.

What can be done? The best things countries can do are:

Reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in ways that do not reduce economic growth.

Improve technology – in cars, electric generating plants and manufacturing machinery.

Research the real cause of climate change to understand better the effects of changes in the sun's energy output and the historical rise and fall of global temperatures.

Finally, says du Pont, permanently reject the Kyoto concept, for international regulation of the world's economic process would be the beginning of the end of the world's opportunities.

Source: Pete du Pont, Kyoto? No Go: How to combat "global warming" without destroying the economy, OpinionJournal.com, March 28, 2006.

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For more on Global Warming: http://globalwarming.ncpa.org/

FMF Policy Bulletin/ 04 April 2006