Leading way on climate change

I write in The Daily Telegraph that Europe must lead way on climate change 24 December 2004.

With the developments at the COP10 climate summit in Buenos Aires, the Kyoto Protocol is dancing its last tango. The European Union and environmentalist activists have been pushing for negotiations to establish more stringent emissions limits for a second commitment period after 2012. It's not going to happen.

The conventional wisdom - that it's the United States against the rest of the world in climate-change diplomacy - has been turned on its head. It turns out that Europe is isolated. China, India and most of the developing countries have joined forces with America to reject completely the idea of future binding greenhouse gas emission limits. Italy shocked its fellow European Union members when it called for an end to the Kyoto Protocol in 2012.

These countries recognise that stringent emission limits would be huge barriers to their economic growth and future development. It is, therefore, of the greatest importance that the EU changes its present strategy and opts for effective technologies solutions, instead of cap and trade systems.

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