The Anchoress
Yesterday, I had complained about seeing nothing in the mainstream press about a new environmental agreement brokered by the Bush Administration and agreed to by China, Australia, India, South Korea and Japan. I’m still not seeing anything about it in the MSM, but James Glassman is writing about it in TCS. Call it Beyond Kyoto or “Sane Kyoto,” it appears to be very good news – news that environmentalists and folks on the left would probably applaud if only – you know – someone with a D after their name had done it.
You’ll want to read Glassman’s whole piece, but here is a taste:
While given short shrift by the puzzled media, this is a big deal, in many ways.
First, it breaks the climate-change deadlock. This is the agreement that responsible scientists and public officials have been seeking since the failure of the Kyoto Protocol became evident at the global warming conclave in Delhi two years ago. Call it “Beyond Kyoto” – Way Beyond Kyoto.
Second, the new deal was negotiated and settled without the involvement of the United Nations or the European Union – a clear message from the United States that multilateralism does not have a single definition. In fact, according to The Guardian newspaper, the agreement – called the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate — was kept secret by President Bush from British Prime Minister Tony Blair, an uncompromising champion of Kyoto, during last month’s G8 meeting” in Scotland.
Third, the agreement comprises countries that account for 45% of the world’s population and about half the world’s economic output and greenhouse gas emissions, mainly carbon dioxide, implicated in raising surface temperatures. More Asian countries may soon join the pact.
Fourth and most important, it takes a pro-growth approach to combating the possibility of global warming in the century ahead. The new Beyond Kyoto agreement focuses on innovative technology as the antidote, not only to carbon-dioxide emissions but also to dirty air and economic deprivation. The very first statement in the pact is: “Development and poverty eradication are urgent and overriding goals internationally.”
That’s a stark contrast with Kyoto’s preference for hard CO2 targets, met through government directives, to reduce energy use. Development is an afterthought.
Even its staunchest supporters now recognize that Kyoto, signed in 1997 and officially ratified last year, has no future.
Many of the world’s most prolific emitters of greenhouse gases, including China, India and South Korea, were exempt from the requirements of the protocol. The US and Australia have rejected it. And even noisy advocates, like France, Italy and Canada, are nowhere close to meeting the treaty’s targets. The EU’s emissions rose 3.6% between 2001 and 2004 (those in the US fell).
The left is predictably wrinkling its nose at this plan, but it sounds sensible, pragmatic, non-traumatic and, perhaps most importantly, DO-ABLE.
I know, I know, President Bush is bad, stupid, a moron, a liar, a cheat, yadda yadda…but the Kyoto Protocol was something his predecessor didn’t really have to courage to either sign onto or ignore, and he never suggested an alternative. We’ve watched the UN and Europe try to keep a good face on a basically unworkable idea. Hate him all you want, President Bush has vision, he is uninterested in theorizing and gabbing about a problem and is keen to actually DO something.
Wow…actually DOING stuff. What a concept.
Got the story, btw, via the great Lucianne.com
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