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Europe
Italy Calls to End Kyoto Climate Limits After 2012
2004-12-28
Italy has called for an end to the Protocols of the Elders of Kyoto Kyoto Protocol after the environmental treaty's initial period in 2012, preferring voluntary agreements that would entice the United States, China and India to tackle climate change. Moving away from the European Union's traditional championing of the legally binding nature of the U.N. pact, Environment Minister Altero Matteoli said continuing Kyoto in its current form would be useless without the agreement of some of the world's biggest polluters. "The first phase of the protocol ends in 2012, after that it is unthinkable to go ahead without the United States, China and India," Matteoli told reporters at Kyoto-related talks in Buenos Aires in quotes confirmed by his ministry on Wednesday. "Seeing as these countries do not wish to talk about binding agreements, we must proceed with voluntary accords, bilateral pacts and commercial partnerships." The United States, which emits a quarter of the world's and one third of the developing world's greenhouse gas, pulled out of the pact in 2001
That's a goddam lie right there; we were never in the "pact." But it wouldn't be a Rooters story without at least one lie about and gratuitous slam to the U.S.
Um, actually Pres. Clinton had signed it but never sent it to the Senate to ratify, since the Senate had said it wouldn't do so. According to the accord, just signing it put you 'in', but Clinton made it clear we wouldn't abide by it until the Senate ratified. It was Pres. Bush who revoked our signature, necessary to ensure that we'd never be held to any of the terms.
saying it would harm the economy
Congress said it would harm our economy when Clinton was still president; notice how Rooters blames it on the Bush Administration? Again, disgusting but not surprising.
Not only did all the Republican senators vote on the advisory resolution to reject the Accord, but almost all the Democratic ones did so as well. I think the final vote was 95 - 0. Rare to find such a united front in the Senate.
and was unfair as it did not set targets for developing countries. But the EU plowed ahead and secured the backing of other big emitters Japan and, just last month, Russia.
Because Russia figures it can make money selling carbon credits, and doesn't intend to honor it anyway.
Under the pact, developed countries must reduce their emissions by an average of 5.2 percent of 1990 levels by the period 2008-12, a commitment which the ministry said Italy intended to honor. Signatories are expected to sign up for bigger cuts in a second period after 2012 in a rolling process aimed at bringing emissions down to levels that will not affect the climate, considered to be at least a 60 percent global cut.
60%? Yeah, like that'll happen. And how the hell do these wankers know what will "affect the climate"? The biggest thing that affects our climate is the SUN. What are they planning to do about that? (I probably don't want to know.)
That's why they need the Russians; for those big heavy rocket boosters.
Italian environmentalists accused the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of showing common sense abandoning Kyoto and cosying up to President Bush, who he met in Washington later on Wednesday.
Ya' just knew they'd have to come along and crap in the punch bowl....
The head of Italy's green party called for Matteoli's resignation. "Never in recent years has Italy shown as much good sense embraced in such a servile way the most anti-environmental positions of the Bush administration," Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio said.
Stand your ground, President Bush. Some people are starting to notice the Kyoto ship has been sinking for years, and are finally thinking about getting off before it's too late.
Posted by:Barbara Skolaut

#3  Lies heaped on myth propped up by junk science.
Posted by: Tom   2004-12-28 3:27:57 PM  

#2  Kyoto has ZERO to do with preventing global warming or making earth a cleaner planet. The UN exempted the 2 biggest nation polluters ( China and India) from following the Kyoto Protocol, so what does that tell you?

Kyoto is all about re-distribution of $ from rich to poor nations. Under Kyoto every nation would get environmental "credits". So industrialized affluent countries like the US, Canada, UK, Italy, Japan, etc could buy credits from Third World unindustrialized hellholes like Zimbabwe or S.Africa without effecting pollution one way or the other. Especially if global warming is a natural cycle that happens every 4000 years whatever as many scientists believe, then global warming will continue even if we all rode bicycles to work every day. However, Western businesses and taxpayers would take it in the neck big time with additional "discreet" taxes to pay for these extra credits from Third World countries.
Posted by: joeblow   2004-12-28 3:20:59 PM  

#1  I read a couple of days ago(don't remeber where)that the U.S. has cut air pollution by 50% since 1980.How much has the E.U cut in the last 20 years,Aris?
Posted by: Raptor   2004-12-28 2:15:51 PM  

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