Europe's carbon-trading scheme Corporate bonanza fails to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

The findings of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) earlier this year, bringing together the work of scientists from throughout the world, firmly established that global warming is taking place and that the consequent climate change is a major threat to the future of humankind. It leads to the greater incidence of droughts, rising sea levels, flooding rivers, large-scale extinctions of plant and animal life, and greater malnutrition and disease. As a result, the US administration and the American oil and energy lobby are reluctantly shifting away from their previous stand of climate change denial.

In the end, US President George Bush agreed to a non-specific “substantial” cut in greenhouse gases and to negotiate a new climate change deal within the next two years. He also agreed to “seriously consider” the proposal for a 50 percent reduction by 2050, provided India and China were included in any agreement.

European leaders have polished their public images by appearing to take a lead in tackling global warming. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister Tony Blair described the G8 discussions as “a major step forward”—Blair apparently regarding it as one of his greatest contributions to humanity before he leaves office. Environmental protesters, who have concentrated their anger on Bush, were left deflated and complained at the failure of the G8 to agree to “binding targets.”

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