Why the Kyoto Protocol won’t work

China and India are exempt from the international agreement to limit greenhouse gases. With China set to pass U.S. as world’s top generator of greenhouse gases that’s pretty much a joke:

Far more than previously acknowledged, the battle against global warming will be won or lost in China, even more so than in the West, new data show.

A report released last week by Beijing authorities indicated that as its economy continues to expand at a red-hot pace, China is highly likely to overtake the United States this year or in 2008 as the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

This information, along with data from the International Energy Agency, the Paris-based alliance of oil importing nations, also revealed that China’s greenhouse gas emissions have recently been growing by a total amount much greater than that of all industrialized nations put together.

“The magnitude of what’s happening in China threatens to wipe out what’s happening internationally,” said David Fridley, leader of the China Energy Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Back to the drawing board, fellow global-warming fanatics.

3 thoughts on “Why the Kyoto Protocol won’t work”

  1. “Back to the drawing board”, indeed, my friend. Green technology coming out of the Santa Clara Valley will help the world harvest the low-hanging fruit of energy EFFICIENCY. Once efficiency starts to be maximized, alternative fuels and renewable energy will ramp up to take up the slack.
    All the talk about cellulosic alcohol, hydrogen, wind power, tidal energy, ad infinitum will not mean much unless the world becomes more efficient to offset the growing demand for energy.

  2. Can you substantiate the “China is exempt” part? I've tried to learn more abou this and only found that the US, China and India are all refusing to sign any agreement because (1) the other countries, all big offenders, aren't and (2) the controls and requirements aren't measurable enough or clear enough. Can you clarify where you got this information?

  3. This post is 18 months old, and information available at the time said developing countries were exempt from the strict carbon limits imposed on developed ones. The caps also tended to punish countries that had already taken steps to reduce emissions, such as the UK, but were friendly to those who were just starting to do so, like the newly-united Germany.

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