It wasn't long ago that Canada's politicians were cursing the U.S. for its failure to go along with Kyoto's mandate of steep reductions in the emission of greenhouses gases. Now, they're having second thoughts.
Just last week, Environment Minister John Baird said Kyoto compliance would cost Canada 275,000 jobs and push its economy into recession.
Instead of Kyoto, Canada will join the U.S.-led Asian-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate — whose members also include Australia, China, India, Japan and South Korea. The so-called AP6 was launched in mid-2005 to make voluntary cuts in greenhouse gases.
the U.S., which is under no treaty obligation to cut greenhouse gases, has actually done a better job of it than Europe's holier-than-thou green bureaucrats.
From 2000 to 2004, average carbon emissions rose by 1.3% in the U.S., but by 2.2% in the 25 nations of the European Union. That, despite the fact the U.S. economy grew 2 1/2 times faster.
Estimates put the amount of warming avoided by Kyoto at around 0.04 to 0.07 degree centigrade. That means trillions of dollars would have been spent for a cut in warming so small it's not even clear it could be measured.
