WA: Many Cities Find Kyoto Promises Hard to Keep

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Many cities find Kyoto promises hard to keep

By Warren Cornwall
Seattle Times environment reporter

Vancouver - one of at least 28 other Washington cities signing a pledge to match the Kyoto global-warming treaty. Some of the biggest cities face long odds of cutting emissions to 7 percent below 1990's levels by 2012.

Several have effectively reneged on their pledges.

"I don't think people really grasp what it's going to take," said Vancouver's sustainability coordinator.

"If we were static it would be one thing. But this region has been growing."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/l ... cation=rss

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wsj.com

GAS LEAK
Kyoto's Caps on Emissions Hit Snag in Marketplace

By JEFFREY BALL
December 3, 2007; Page A1

Kyoto Protocol hasn't forced the industrialized world to meaningfully curb fossil fuel consumption.

UN diplomats at a Bali global-warming conference are looking for a fix. A Senate committee is scheduled to debate a U.S. greenhouse gases cap/trade system.

But, the U.S./China aren't subject to caps. Countries facing caps were reluctant to push industries hard. Industry fulfills obligations without cutting much fossil fuel.

"Markets work to find the lowest-cost alternative," says a diplomat.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1196645 ... s_page_one

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US `not ready' to commit at Bali
By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent
Sat Dec 8, 3:24 PM ET

The United States will come up with its own plan to cut global-warming gases by mid-2008, and won't commit to mandatory caps at the U.N. climate conference here, the chief U.S. negotiator said Saturday.

"We're not ready to do that here," said Harlan Watson, the State Department's senior climate negotiator and special representative. "We're working on that, what our domestic contribution would be, and again we expect that sometime before the end of the Major Economies process."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071208/ap_ ... JUFAwE1vAI

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wsj.com

Bali Aims to Share Weight of Emissions Cuts
By JANE SPENCER
December 17, 2007; Page A3

BALI, Indonesia -- The climate-change pact adopted here paves the way for developing nations to take more responsibility in combating the global threat.

The agreement calls on developing nations to take "actions" to mitigate climate change in a "measurable, reportable, verifiable" manner.

The accord doesn’t require the developing/developed world to make binding cuts.

The agreement includes a "road map" aiming to set a timetable/parameters to guide negotiations on a new global climate treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol.

URL for this article: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119771523266431909.html


Sidebar on Growing Emissions, Info from Energy Information Administration

Average Grwoth rate of man-made greenhouse-gas emissions, percentage change per year, 2004-2030

China 3.4 percent
India 2.6 percent
U.S. 1.1 percent
Europe 0.3 percent