First, the "cut and paste" from an earlier post this morning:
Op-ed: The Kyoto Scorecard.
The UN's anti-carbon scheme didn't work out as planned. Well, duh. Did
you know that The Kyoto Protocol expired four or five days ago, on
January 1, 2013? Expired. As in dead.
Now, from another source:
what happens when the Kyoto protocol expires? This paragraph caught my attention:
Of the 37 developed nations, one never ratified it. Ratification makes a
country legally bound to the commitment it made when it signed the
document. That one country is the United States, one of the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases. But many countries that did make commitments are failing to live up to them.
That paragraph failed to note:
- the one country that failed to sign the protocol, lived up to the intent of the signatories
- Canada withdrew, after being one of the earlier signers of the protocol
- China and India, huge CO2 emitters, were given a pass; no requirement to cut emissions
- the US and Germany were the only two major industrial countries to decrease their emissions
- repeat: the US decreased its emissions
- US CO2 emissions are at a 20-year low; the US saw an 8% drop q/q in the first quarter 2012 (NY Times)
But I was surprised. I was not aware that the Kyoto Protocol expired in 2012.
