On First Anniversary, Kyoto’s Future Looks Bleak

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Richard Morrison, 202.331.2273

Washington, D.C., February 14, 2006—As the Kyoto Protocol reaches its first anniversary since going into force internationally on February 16, 2005, the Competitive Enterprise Institute's assessment is that the UN global warming treaty continues to slide quickly toward ignominious collapse.”The costs of Kyoto have become apparent to the few nations that promised to cut their emissions. But even as they damage their economies with limits on energy use, emissions continue to go up,” said Myron Ebell, director of energy and global warming policy. “The sooner that Kyoto's supporters realize that it's a dead end, the better off the world will be.””The highlight of Kyoto's first year is that the majority of the 34 covered countries officially project their future emissions will violate, often spectacularly, their Kyoto quotas.  That includes Canada, Japan, New Zealand and notably, nearly every one of the EU-15,” said Christopher Horner, senior fellow.For example, greenhouse gas emissions are up 13 per cent since 1990 in the non-Party United States, although they are flat since 1997, but have increased 24 per cent since 1990 in Kyoto-ratifier Canada.  Many among the EU-15 fare just as poorly, and their total emissions have spiked since 1997.Senior fellow Iain Murray noted that, “The vast resources being wasted on unsussessful Kyoto implementation, avoiding undetectable potential future global warming, would be better spent on alleviating real problems faced by the world's poorest people here and now. The world should drop Kyoto and start working on alternatives, such as the Asia-Pacific Clean Development Partnership, that will build resiliency and deploy new energy technologies.”