Of the original 15 European Union ratifiers of Kyoto, at best four are on course to meet the treaty's target of an 8% reduction in greenhouse emissions by 2008-2012 from the 1990 base-year level.
But this becomes less disappointing once you learn Kyoto's dirty little secret. Even supporters concede that if all countries complied, the amount of warming prevented by 2100 would be at most 0.2 degrees Fahrenheit, except that 0.2 degrees is immeasurable. Certainly it won't save a single polar bear.
Of course, Europe could continue setting goals and failing to meet them; but the EU is becoming irrelevant anyway. "By 2010, the net reduction in global emissions from Europe meeting the Kyoto Protocol will be only 0.1%," said Margo Thorning, senior vice president for the free-market American Council for Capital Formation, in recent congressional testimony. That's "because all the growth is coming in places like India, China, and Brazil."
And bizarrely, while these countries have ratified the treaty, they are exempt from its requirements because, until fairly recently, they weren't major greenhouse gas producers.
That's also why Kyoto signatory Canada is producing 24% more carbon dioxide than in 1990 while the U.S. is producing only 13% more. None of which prevented Canada's Prime Minister Paul Martin from emitting a noxious gaseous emission accusing his southern neighbor of lacking "a global conscience."
The conference should call for ramped-up production of Not that the effort's been a total waste. It's taught us that massive international undertakings require just a bit more than making sanctimonious speeches and signing a sheet of paper.
