FT: Action needed now for Kyoto II
Always realists, the editors of London’s Financial Times have come out loudly in favour of strong action by our politicians during 2007 on climate change, to ensure a successor to the Kyoto Treaty is negotiated by 2012, a successor which must include a global cap on carbon emissions. We find nothing to disagree with in this editorial:
“Unfortunately the world’s politicians did little during 2006 to respond to the new mood, beyond talking; 2007 must be a year of political action. Top priority is to begin putting in place a successor to the much maligned [tagKyoto protocol[/tag] which, for all its faults, has done something to curb carbon emissions in Europe and Japan and is certainly preferable to not having any international agreement on climate change.
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Kyoto II must impose a global cap on greenhouse gas emissions. That means bringing in the developing countries, above all China and India, whose emissions have grown far faster than the designers of the original protocol had expected. There will also have to be an efficient world market in tradable rights to emit carbon dioxide.
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Meanwhile the European Union must stick to the tough targets proposed recently by the Commission in Brussels for carbon dioxide emissions from 2008 to 2012. Some governments, egged on by industry lobbyists, will undoubtedly push for a significant relaxation in these targets, pleading national economic interests. The EU must resist them if it is to demonstrate to the world that a carbon trading scheme, based on mandatory cuts in emissions, can work well.”