[NYTr] US/Canada/Australia: 3 Stooges of Global Warming

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by map at economicdemocracy.org - activ-l

[Bush, Howard and Harper have something else in common. They lead the
three countries with the highest per capita emissions of greenhouse
gases among major economies. Australia emits 26 tons of greenhouse
gases per person, the United States and Canada 23 tons each. This
compares to 5 tons per person in China and 2 tons in India. The
European Union emits 10 tons per capita.]


The Toronto Star - Oct 1, 2007
http://www.thestar.com/columnists/article/262078

The Three Stooges of global climate change

by David Crane

The urgency of dealing with climate change is not going to go away. It
is only going to get worse. Moreover, the longer we delay in getting
truly serious, the greater the cost of curbing emissions and adapting
to the impact of greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere.

While politicians, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, wring their
hands over the costs of curbing greenhouse gas emissions, they
foolishly ignore the costs of not curbing them.

It was the Swedish Prime Minister, Fredrik Reinfeldt, who told the
recent U.N. High-Level Conference on climate change, "we need decisive
and global political action to prevent further dangerous changes to our
climate system and to adapt to the consequences that are inevitable."

This should be obvious. But there is a Gang of Three – call them the
Three Climate Stooges – who are vigorously fighting serious
international action to deal with what is perhaps the biggest single
challenge facing human society over the next 50 years.

These three conservative leaders, U.S. President George W. Bush,
Canada's own Prime Minister Harper and Australian Prime Minister John
Howard, were all strong opponents of the Kyoto Accord and have formed a
political alliance to fight a strict successor regime to the Kyoto
Accord in 2012, one that would include legal caps on greenhouse gas
emissions.

Bush, Howard and Harper have something else in common. They lead the
three countries with the highest per capita emissions of greenhouse
gases among major economies. Australia emits 26 tons of greenhouse
gases per person, the United States and Canada 23 tons each. This
compares to 5 tons per person in China and 2 tons in India. The
European Union emits 10 tons per capita.

A typical Canadian emits nearly 5 times as much greenhouse gases as a
typical Chinese and nearly 12 times as much as a typical Indian.

The purpose of the Kyoto Accord was to take the first steps to reducing
emissions by putting the heaviest initial burden on the richest
countries, which also happened to have accounted for most of the
accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere since 1850. The
United States accounted for 30 per cent of that accumulation and the
European Union 27 per cent, while China accounted for just 7 per cent
and India 2 per cent.

While the Europeans are showing global leadership on the need for
further tough action in a new post-Kyoto accord, the Three Stooges of
climate change – Bush, Howard and Harper – are showing the reverse.
They want aspirational targets for emissions reduction, which countries
are free to adopt or ignore, rather than binding emissions caps, which
would force serious adjustment, starting with the largest per capita
emitters.

Sir Nicholas Stern, in his major report on climate change, says
fighting climate change should cost about 1 per cent of annual GDP by
2050, a modest price compared to the benefits. The former chief
economist of the World Bank has also stressed that the developed
countries – including Canada, the United States and Australia – should
shoulder most of the burden, at least initially, since they are
responsible for much of the build-up to date of greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere. They also have the greatest financial and technology
resources.

But as Stern's report made clear, serious change won't happen unless
there is a significant carbon tax along with a mandatory cap on
emissions to change behaviour and to provide a strong economic
incentive for companies to develop and install low-carbon technologies
or adopt significant energy efficiency systems.

We've wasted too much time debating the science behind climate change.
Now it is up to all of us, including the Three Stooges, to get serious.

[David Crane's column on Global Issues appears Mondays.]