Les Jones

News > Russia Delays on Kyoto Protocol

Vladimir Putin has blown off the Kyoto Treaty for another year. Link. This could be the death blow critics of the treaty have been expecting.

There was a time when I was pro-Kyoto, and was mad at Bush for unilaterally pulling out. At the time, Chris Range explained all of the problems with the treaty, particularly the fact that several of the largest, most-polluting nations on the planet were exempt. And it wasn't just Republicans who didn't support it: Clinton never signed Kyoto, and the U.S. Senate voted unanimously against it.

Mark Steyn has a good summary from 2001:

Worse, the treaty would set up an international emissions-trading market, whereby the only way to mitigate against the economic shrinkage would be for the U.S. to buy "pollution permits" from Russia, India or various developing countries, which would be allowed to sell their "pollution rights" for billions of dollars which would supposedly go to reducing their own emissions. But there'd be no way to ensure that those countries really do spend the money on emissions reductions: The U.S. would wind up paying the Russian mafia or the Congo's nutcake of the month for the privilege of not closing an auto plant in Flint. According to some estimates, the transfer of wealth from selling emissions chits could have been worth up to US$40-billion just to the Russians.

So on top of the other inquities, Kyoto wouldn't have cut pollution, but it would have served as a massive wealth redistribution from the U.S. to developing polluters. And the first thing you know old Yev's a millionaire.

The National Post article linked above notes that Canada, a signatory to the treaty, hasn't been able to meet its goals. Another interesting note:

The U.S. Senate recently handily defeated a bill sponsored by Joe Lieberman and John McCain that would have introduced Kyoto-style mechanisms to control carbon emissions.

Yikes. I like both of those guys, but my respect for both just went down a notch.