Kyoto protocol: too little to stop global warming
Categorie: EcologieHard to say whether the recent Buenos Aires conference on climate change is a failure or a step ahead. On one side there's the good news that thanks to the ratification of the protocol by Russia the agreement will finally become effective in February 2005. But on the other side there is the totally irresponsible decision of the United States, Australia and Saudi Arabia not only to oppose the Kyoto agreements, but to sabotage any future agreements for the period after 2012.
The Humanist Region strongly favours international treaties such as the Kyoto protocol to face planetary emergencies such as global warming. It supports moreover the commitment by the E.U. to reduce CO2 emissions by 8 % before 2012, even though this is only a first step towards more incisive measures.
But we claim that the emission quotas ratified in the Kyoto protocol are totally inadequate to fight global warming. We need cuts in the carbon dioxide emissions of much more massive proportions and a stronger commitment of the nations, considered that some, such as Italy, are even increasing their emissions instead of reducing them. Moreover we dismiss the absurd logic of emission trading, as if the health of people and of the natural environment were a merchandise to be sold according to market mechanisms of demand and offer.
The Kyoto protocol is important not for the weak impact it will have on climate, but as a political message and as an inspiration for all those who are not interested in power and greed, but in the future of earth.
Our planet will need more and more governments and people who work together elaborating common solutions to the upcoming problems, in a process that leads to a Universal Human Nation.
Environmental secretary of the
European Region of the Humanist International