UK Has Exceeded Kyoto 2010 Target By…

June 11th, 2009 by Susan Kraemer

One of the key arguments in the denier industry here has been that the Kyoto Accord doesn’t work: Aside from the oft touted argument that

A. global warming doesn’t exist… or if it does;

B. then human activities have nothing to do with causing it…

C. or even if we do have something to do with causing it, then mere legislation can’t lower CO2 emissions

D. …or even if legislation can make countries seek out more renewable power; then any non-fossil energy just doesn’t ‘work’ somehow.

[social_buttons] So ever since most of the civilized world signed Kyoto, there has been a constant drumbeat from all the No We Can’t Think Tanks like the American Enterprise Institute or CATO propelling the idea that Europe is failing to meet the Kyoto goals.

Never mind that to be short of a 2010 goal in 1998 is no indication of failure. But now 2010 is within sighting distance.

And as they sing it in that great American musical South Pacific: If you don’t have a dream…? If you don’t have a dream? How… can you – make a – dream come true?”

This week we have news of yet another Kyoto nation to not just make its Kyoto dream come true – but to…

Double it! The UK is on target to double its 2010 Kyoto goal!

The UK’s Kyoto target was 12.5 percent by 2010. 23 percent is nearly twice that.

Now Britain is on course to cut its greenhouse gas by about 23 percent by 2010 from the 1990 level – nearly double its target under the Kyoto agreement, the Department of Energy and Climate Change said on Friday.

This 23 percent reduction puts the UK well on the road to its 2020 goal, which is the next target. To meet 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, Britain has to reduce its emissions by 34 percent.

These interim goals are designed to get Britain to the scientific recommended cut of 80 percent cut by 2050 from the 1990 level. Which takes a steady 2 percent a year, for nations starting back then.

If you don’t have a dream…

But wait for the next nine years of whining: “Britain Still Short of 2020 Kyoto Target”

Via Reuters James Pethokoukis

Image of wind turbine in a first world nation from Groovy Green

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Tags: EU Kyoto targets, Kyoto failure, UK Kyoto goals, UK to cut carbon emissions by 2010

About the Author

Susan Kraemer writes at CleanTechnica, CSP-Today, PV-Insider , SmartGridUpdate, and GreenProphet. She has also been published at Ecoseed, NRDC OnEarth, MatterNetwork, Celsius, EnergyNow, and Scientific American. As a former serial entrepreneur in product design, Susan brings an innovator's perspective on inventing a carbon-constrained civilization: If necessity is the mother of invention, solving climate change is the mother of all necessities! As a lover of history and sci-fi, she enjoys chronicling the strange future we are creating in these interesting times. Follow Susan on Twitter @dotcommodity.

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frensj

@Michael Antoniewicz

Michael, don’t forget that forests, when not expanding in size, are climate neutral. Rotting trees emit gasses, growing trees use them to grow. Forests do make oxygen etc, but from the carbon production point of view forests are neutral.

Not to mention your other arguments, Americans don’t know what jammed highways are (come to Belgium or the Netherlands to see some…). And if I don’t recall wrong, thats what ships do everywhere, no? BTW ship engines are very efficient compared to other engines.

But hey when you read this site you see that the US is also on the good path with all those investments in durable energy. And then this American ‘we have it bigger’ thingy is something very very good
frensj

@Michael Antoniewicz

Michael, don’t forget that forests, when not expanding in size, are climate neutral. Rotting trees emit gasses, growing trees use them to grow. Forests do make oxygen etc, but from the carbon production point of view forests are neutral.

Not to mention your other arguments, Americans don’t know what jammed highways are (come to Belgium or the Netherlands to see some…). And if I don’t recall wrong, thats what ships do everywhere, no? BTW ship engines are very efficient compared to other engines.

But hey when you read this site you see that the US is also on the good path with all those investments in durable energy. And then this American ‘we have it bigger’ thingy is something very very good
Michael Antoniewicz II

Please add in the gasses generated from the British (50+% controled/owned) offshore drilling & production platforms that ‘flare off’ huge amounts of Natural Gas while producing Oil.

Yes the British Government is already moving towards inticeing the capture and use of that NG (for many reasons, one of which is to burn it more compleatly in a system that has polution controls in the smoke stacks) for Energy rather then throwing it away and buying it from Russia and etc.

Oh, and you left out one of the main reasons the U.S. doesn’t like Kyoto is that it ignores the majority (if not all) of the National Forests.

Add those in and the U.S. is a Carbon Negitive producer … even with jammed highways and Foreign Flagged shipping tied up at the Ports running their engines for onboard electricity rather then pluging into a shore outlet … so the electricity comes from a heaviely regulated power plant that has polution controls.
Michael Antoniewicz II

Please add in the gasses generated from the British (50+% controled/owned) offshore drilling & production platforms that ‘flare off’ huge amounts of Natural Gas while producing Oil.

Yes the British Government is already moving towards inticeing the capture and use of that NG (for many reasons, one of which is to burn it more compleatly in a system that has polution controls in the smoke stacks) for Energy rather then throwing it away and buying it from Russia and etc.

Oh, and you left out one of the main reasons the U.S. doesn’t like Kyoto is that it ignores the majority (if not all) of the National Forests.

Add those in and the U.S. is a Carbon Negitive producer … even with jammed highways and Foreign Flagged shipping tied up at the Ports running their engines for onboard electricity rather then pluging into a shore outlet … so the electricity comes from a heaviely regulated power plant that has polution controls.
Shawn or?

What windmill is that? I want to read about it, it is huge!
Shawn or?

What windmill is that? I want to read about it, it is huge!
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yr buddy

More inspirational songs like that: If you don’t have a dream…

Imagine there’s a country…it isn’t hard to do

(Agree you need to believe it to build it)
yr buddy

More inspirational songs like that: If you don’t have a dream…

Imagine there’s a country…it isn’t hard to do

(Agree you need to believe it to build it)