US & Oz States Take on Bad Climate Governance
States in the U.S. and Australia are developing carbon trading systems to curb greenhouse gases after the federal governments in both countries refused to ratify the Kyoto Protocol. In Australia starting in 2010 electricity companies in all eight states and territories would have to hold tradable permits to emit greenhouse gases. In the U.S., New York and six other northeastern U.S. states agreed on a plan to begin in 2009 to cut carbon dioxide emissions from power plants by 10 percent over 10 years - and California is moving forward with plans to cap and trade greenhouse gases. Timely changes of national government in both countries and their eventual rejoining of the Kyoto process should allow convergence into a single international carbon market whose emission targets can be regularly tightened.
Comments
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Posted by: Glen Barry | August 18, 2006 8:04 AM
Kyoto is worthless and would not even solve the problem. We need to grow our economies and voluntarily cut emissions. Anything else is communism.
Posted by: voluntary | August 19, 2006 8:11 PM
What does Kyoto have to do with efforts by individual states in the U.S. and Australia to develop their own regulatory schemes to reduce CO2 emissions, thus bypassing the Bush and Howard administrations, which owe their fealty to the oil and coal industries, respectively? The answer is: nada.
As to "voluntary" efforts to cut emissions, ever heard of "tragedy of the commons?" The Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and other environmental laws of the 1970s produced significant improvements in air and water pollution levels in the US, with an approach that was in no way "voluntary," but rather had the teeth of significant regulatory authority. We won't deal with this problem through "voluntary" approaches, as more and more forward-thinking US corporate leaders (as well as political leaders outside the US) are recognizing. FYI, these laws were signed by a Republican President. Look it up.
As to the throw-away reference to "communism," I wonder if the professional climate skeptics (i.e. the paid hacks) are noticing climate ark, and posting these irrelevant comments.
Posted by: ewoc | August 19, 2006 11:55 PM
Save Planet Earth!
Posted by: EarthSketch | August 24, 2006 8:09 PM