EU Hard At Work Cutting Kyoto Breaks For Polluting Industries - Reuters

[hatrack]

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A study in the journal Nature last month estimated that even the toughest global climate goals for the entire 21st century -- far beyond Kyoto -- would only brake growth of the world economy by one percentage point by 2100. "The price of Kyoto will be less than many people thought," said David Doniger, a climate expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington.

President George W. Bush pulled out in 2001, saying Kyoto would cost US jobs and wrongly omits poor nations. Many Kyoto supporters who bitterly criticised Bush at the time are now jibing at tough measures. Among EU nations, for instance, both France and Germany on Thursday proposed plans that will allow rises in emissions. Germany, Europe's biggest polluter, is proposing to cut its emissions by nearly 5.6 percent in 2008-12 from 2005-07. But it blew off the cap by offering all new power plants -- including those run on coal -- unlimited free emissions until 2022.

The EU Commission can reject schemes it considers too lax. Kyoto obliges 35 rich nations to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by an average 5.2 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12. "The Europeans will meet their target but the question is 'how?'. They are letting the large industrial sectors off easily," said Steve Sawyer, climate policy expert at Greenpeace. He said governments would instead have to squeeze emissions by measures such as higher taxes on energy use -- muting the incentive for power stations to shift to cleaner technologies.

EU emissions overall rose by 0.4 percent in 2004 from 2003 but are 4.8 percent below 1990 levels thanks mainly to declines in eastern Europe after the collapse of Soviet-era industries.

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http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/37063/story.htm

[NNadir]

1. Germany.

Germany, Europe's biggest polluter, is proposing to cut its emissions by nearly 5.6 percent in 2008-12 from 2005-07. But it blew off the cap by offering all new power plants -- including those run on coal -- unlimited free emissions until 2022.

How is offering unlimited free emissions from all new coal plants a program to cut emissions 5.6 percent in 2008-12?

Is anyone else suspicious of the arithmetic here?