Posted: 11/28/2005
Montreal Climate Conference to Vindicate U.S. Policy
World Leaders Are Adopting U.S. Approach To Warming, Rejecting Kyoto
DALLAS (November 28, 2005) – If the United Nations Climate Change conference that begins in Montreal today proves anything, it will be that the United States, not the Europeans, has taken the correct approach to climate change, according to NCPA Senior Fellow H. Sterling Burnett.
Canada, Japan and 11 of the 15 European Union countries in attendance at this year’s conference have substantially increased greenhouse gas emissions, rather than reducing them from 1990 levels, and those governments admit it is highly unlikely that they will meet emission levels required by the Kyoto Protocol.
Several prominent world leaders also have begun discussing voluntary emissions reductions. British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Environment Secretary Margaret Beckett, two of the staunchest advocates of legally binding CO2 emission reductions, late last week acknowledged that world leaders will be unlikely to agree to further emission cuts when Kyoto lapses in 2012.
“The rest of the developed world is now jumping on the bandwagon that the Bush Administration has been driving for more than three years,” Burnett said. “Welcome aboard!”
In addition, the U.S. has spent in excess of $6 billion per year, more than any other government, to create and promote technologies that will reduce emissions yet also promote economic growth. For example:
- $700 million in tax credits to promote clean technologies
- $3 billion in research into new clean technologies
- $200 million to transfer clean technologies to developing countries
“Industry is on course to meet the Bush Administration’s goal of reducing annual emissions of greenhouse gases by 1.5 percent of gross domestic product, and that’s more than can be said for most Kyoto signatory nations,” Burnett added.
Editor’s note: Recent NCPA research has shown that the best response to climate change is to adapt to warming rather than trying to prevent it, and adaptation will reduce the problems most often projected to worsen as a result of global warming.