your village voice

Rival to Kyoto

Following my previous post in June (Global Worming), there are rumors that the US and Australia are working on a rival protocol to the Kyoto Treaty, based on industry not the big picture. Supposedly some Asian countries are involved including China, India and South Korea. The competing pact involves using cleaner technologies rather than by wholesale emission reduction.

As the BBC reports, there are some very logical reasons why wholesale reduction is off the table for these countries:

According to the organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the four biggest producers of coal in the world are China, the United States, India and Australia; so it is unlikely that these nations would come up with an agreement to reduce the production and use of coal.

The final plan of action from this month's meeting of G8 leaders made clear that fossil fuel power stations are going to be a dominant source of electricity for decades to come, and reducing their emissions would be a priority.

To deny that both cleaner technologies and large emission reductions are needed to slow down if not stop climate change is absolutely ridiculous. The Kyoto Treaty does not do near enough, but surely this new US pact with a stubborn focus on technology and not emission quantity, also side- steps the larger issue. Emissions must be reduced, and industry must be held to task.


Technology is a means to that end, but cannot be an end unto itself. Or else there is no reduction and more useless legislation. The environment in which we live is as important if not more so to the world's economy. If in this alone, the world can agree only then can progress be made.

posted by the prisoner @ 12:27:00 PM