Kyoto delusions

The Kyoto Protocol comes into force today. Is it the worst treaty ever?

It must be a contender. Put simply, Kyoto is an expensive way to fail to solve a problem that doesn't exist. The UK National Audit Office this week pointed out that the compulsory purchase of energy from renewable sources will cost £1billion per year in increased bills - and that's just one part of the UK strategy. Another, emissions trading, involves countries like the UK paying countries such as Russia for part of their carbon production allowance, carbon they wouldn't emit anyway since their industry has collapsed. So the UK pays a small fortune for an emissions reduction that only exists on paper.

After all this, Kyoto will have a negligible effect on real emissions - even the treaty’s biggest fans can only argue that it is 'a start'. And Kyoto is justified on the basis of an alarmist prediction of future climate change, which, if it occurs at all, is likely to be fairly small. There is no climate catastrophe waiting to happen. Far better to encourage development and adaptation, with the much wider benefits they can bring, than attempt to change our climate by tinkering with just one factor that effects it.

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Cool heads required, by Rob Lyons