Posted on 05/31/2002 9:40:25 AM PDT by Clara Lou
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - All 15 European Union (news - web sites) nations ratified the Kyoto pact against global warming (news - web sites) on Friday and goaded Washington -- which has turned its back on the treaty -- to also do its part.
The so-called Kyoto protocol (news - web sites), which grew out of the historic 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, is aimed at cutting the emission of greenhouse gases blamed for rising global temperatures.
Signed in Kyoto, Japan, in 1997, the protocol requires industrialized countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by an average of 5 percent over the period 2008-2012.
But the United States, the world's largest polluter, shunned the treaty shortly after President Bush (news - web sites) took office last year, arguing it would harm the U.S. economy.
The pact would have required Washington to cut emissions by 7 percent from 1990 levels, but the Bush administration has instead announced policy changes likely to push up its emissions by 30 percent by 2010, the European Commission (news - web sites) said.
At a ceremony at U.N. headquarters in New York, representatives of all 15 EU nations and the European Commission handed papers from their respective nations to U.N. Chief Legal Counsel Hans Corell, signifying their national legislatures had approved the pact.
Margot Wallstrom, European commissioner for the environment, called the signing "an historic moment for global efforts to combat climate change" but stressed the need for Washington to pitch in.
"The United States is the only nation to have spoken out against and rejected the global framework for addressing climate change. The European Union urges the United States to reconsider its position," she said. "All countries have to act, but the industrialized world has to take the lead."
The ceremony came as ministers representing the United Nations (news - web sites)' 189 member-nations gathered in Bali to complete preparations for a follow-up meeting to the Earth Summit opening in Johannesburg in August. A top goal of the coming World Summit on Sustainable Development is to ratchet up the fight against global warming.
EU officials said Friday's mass ratification brought the Kyoto pact to within reach of taking effect soon.
To come into force, the treaty must be ratified by at least 55 countries representing 55 percent of developed countries' carbon dioxide emissions.
A total of 70 nations have now ratified, representing 26.6 percent of wealthy nations' emissions, and another 41 nations have signed it.
There was "every indication" enough of these -- including Russia, Japan and New Zealand -- would be ratifying for the emissions threshold to be reached soon, the European Commission said in a statement.
The European Union as a bloc is on course to meet its target of reducing greenhouse gases by 8 percent on 1990 levels, but the picture is very patchy across the bloc.
Total EU emissions were down 3.5 percent in 2000, data released by the European Environment Agency (EEA) last month showed.
But many member states are finding it tough to meet the individual targets they approved under a "burden sharing" agreement that gave countries differentiated targets.
That agreement allowed Spain to increase its emissions by 15 percent, but its emissions were already up 33.7 percent by 2000. Eight other countries in the 15-nation bloc are failing to make the necessary emissions cuts the EEA said.
The EU's main emissions cuts have been made by Britain and Germany, two of the biggest EU economies, which have targets of 12 percent and 21 percent respectively.
Britain has slashed carbon dioxide emissions by 12.5 percent by converting electricity production from coal to less polluting natural gas. Germany's emissions fell by 19 percent, largely due to the closure of inefficient and dirty industry in the former communist east.
But many member states are finding it tough to meet the individual targets they approved under a "burden sharing" agreement that gave countries differentiated targets.You don't say.
Hmmm, how conveniently they forget the massive environmental damage wreaked by the former Soviet Union. As I recall, there are a few cities in Russia which have daily radioactivity forecasts. I dare these IDIOTS at Reuters (a BRITISH news agency! Never forget that!) to name ONE SINGLE city here in the U.S. that does the same!
Idiots. It's amazing that these people manage to make it to work without getting killed. They obviously can't manage to rationally THINK about anything.
:/ ttt
(Y'know, that's like asking the Yankees how good of a team the Mets are. Or asking the Communist Chinese how representative the Taiwanese government is. Doesn't ANYONE in the Criminal Liberal Media ever THINK about anything?!)
;) ttt
//signed//
Conservative/Right Wing American Who Believes in the 2nd Amendment :)
That was a typo. It should read:
But the United States, the world's largest producer,
I suppose it's all relative. The U.S. is a very large country geographically, and it has a huge economy. But as has already been said, the world's worst polluter was the old Soviet bloc, especially East Germany and the Soviet Union.
In comparison to the United States, Europe is badly polluted, too. The Mediterranean is practically a dead sea, the Rhine and the Danube are chemical wastelands, the Black Forest is said to be dying from acid rain. If they want to clean their own mess up, they are welcome to do it. But it doesn't need an unbalanced treaty that, for example, gives China full license to pollute as much as they want.
Maybe the EU doesn't realize this, but the US is doing its part...by ignoring the Kyoto foolishness, which even its supporters admit will make only a negligible difference in world climate by 2100AD.
When you add the facts that the largest future contributors to CO2 atmospheric emissions are not even included in the Kyoto treaty, and that scientific evidence points to the sun's changing radiance being the largest driver of changes in global temperatures, then the question becomes: Why aren't the EU countries honest enough to admit that Kyoto is nothing but envirowhacko-bureaucratic foolishness which really can accomplish little but promote state interference in peoples' lives and reduce public welfare?
Take that, Euro-envirofascists.
If India and Pakistan push the button ALL their work will be nothing more than a fart in a tornado.
The actual process that will be used to produce this Oxygen will be an outgrowth of a secret developmental technology known as Managed Atmospheric Geouniform Integration Coordination, or M.A.G.I.C. This solution will deal with the entire issue of global warmining, its hidden agenda, and the economic and political threat posed by the Kyoto treaty and it's supporters in particular. In other words, fight fire with fire; or hoax with a hoax. Why should the dumbed down world populace not believe in our solution? They believe in the premise of eco-socialists fraudulent scam to undermine the American economy? Just let them try and debunk this, and open their junk science to detailed scrutiny. They might not like that.
Green house gasses
-OR-
The hot air from politicians' oral flatualence.
Not thru any great effort mind you. The limits in place just happen to coincide with several European countries building nuclear plants, thereby reducing emmissions. Kyoto setup baselines where Europe had to do absolutely nothing more to meet the 'baselines'. It is the US/Japan/Australia that are the nations royally screwed by the Kyoto baselines. The signing of Kyoto would have been a HUGE economic windfall for Europe, and I mean HUGE.
Because the way the game was rigged, as the article shows, Europe has to do nothing and they meet the Kyoto requirements. The US on the otherhand has no possible way to meet the limits, and thus will be force to buy credits from other nations for billions and billions and billions of dollars. Kyoto would have given the Europeans a big economic advantage over the US and Japan. Europe would be fools not to sign Kyoto.
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