Rich nations' greenhouse gases up, despite Kyoto

[Eugene]

Rich nations' greenhouse gases up, despite Kyoto

Aug 31, 2006 — By Alister Doyle, Environment Correspondent

OSLO (Reuters) - Industrialized nations' emissions of greenhouse gases edged up
to the highest level in more than a decade in 2004 despite curbs meant to fight
global warming, data compiled by Reuters showed on Thursday.

The figures, based on national submissions to the U.N. Climate Secretariat in Bonn,
indicate many countries will have to do more to meet 2012 goals set by the U.N.'s
Kyoto Protocol for cutting emissions of gases from fossil fuels.

Emissions from 40 industrial nations climbed 1.6 percent overall to 17.8 billion
metric tons of carbon dioxide — mainly from power plants, factories and cars —
in 2004 from in 2003 even though oil prices were surging.

-snip-

Most of the 2004 rise was caused by a 1.7 percent gain in emissions in the United
States, the world's biggest source of greenhouse gases, to a record 7.07 billion
metric tons. Emissions in the European Union and Canada also rose while Japan's
dipped.

-snip-

Full article: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=2378684

[NNadir]

1. It is easy to make a promise, more difficult to deliver on it.

I think the main problem is that everyone is dreaming about solutions (everything is solar or wind powered) that are not practical on the scale needed.

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. Who killed the electric car?

If solutions are being deliberately sidelined by the world's largest industrial power, and the largest consumer of energy and non-Kyoto signer, what do you expect?

The solutions are out there, much of it is in wind, solar, and tidal power, but the energy industry cannot capitalize on it in the traditional way, with large, dense energy generating facilities so they are deliberately undercutting them. They would prefer to have a single coal-fired plant providing energy to 10,000 farms in Nebraska than for each of those 10,000 farms to have their own wind generators, each capable of powering not only themselves but of selling excess energy to the grid. Solar farms and wind farms are AN answer, but that's the answer the energy companies want - not a democratized distributed system. That is what the energy companies are terrified of -- the fact that we don't really need them in much of the country. They are dinosaurs.