One of the major subjects to be discussed at the G-8 summit being held in Germany has to do with Global Warming and the Kyoto Protocols. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been very critical of the US position on the treaty and the German environment minister, Sigmar Gabriel, a Social Democrat, criticized the US policy during a newspaper interview published on the weekend.
The problem of course, is that while Europe criticises the US the fact remains the the EU has not met it's targets for greenhouse gas reductions required by the treaty. Canada's National Post reports
At the heart of the escalating confrontation lies Europe's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and mounting concerns about its prospective failure. The crisis centres on a fundamental conflict between economic realism and environmental idealism, between national interest and green ideology. It has exposed the increasing tension between Europe's green enthusiasm and the realization that its unilateral framework comes at a hefty cost that is beginning to erode the economic stability of a waning continent.
Carbon trading is the EU's principal strategy for meeting its Kyoto target of reducing CO2 emissions by 8% by 2012. The scheme was launched two years ago in the hope that it would achieve what more than 10 years of political commandeering had failed: significant reductions in CO2 emissions. Instead, year after year, most EU countries continue to increase their greenhouse-gas emissions. Rather than proving its effectiveness, the trading system has pushed electricity prices even higher while energy-intensive companies are forced to close down, cut jobs, or pass on the costs to consumers.
And The Guardian reports
While this EU market has failed to make any serious impact on climate change, the UN's Clean Development Mechanism has done little better. In contrast to the EU system, which sells permits to produce supposedly limited quantities of greenhouse gases, the CDM sets up projects which are supposed to reduce the quantity of greenhouse gases and then sells carbon credits which allow buyers to emit more gases.
Ten years after the idea was launched at Kyoto; six years after the guidelines were drawn up at Marrakech; a year and a half after it finally went to work: the CDM thus far has issued only 50m tonnes of certified emissions reductions to offset global warming: Britain produces more emissions than that in a single month.
Waking up to the economic realities, Canada dropped out of the Kyoto treaty earlier this year.
Perhaps this is why, despite the bluster
President George W. Bush moved closer to winning a Group of Eight commitment to combat global warming without shackling the U.S. to a specific target for emissions cuts.
