In a series of climate change negotiations that culminated last week in Montreal, and amid a slew of newly released studies detailing the disastrous implications of a warming planet, many industrialized nations other than the U.S. made strides toward strengthening the Kyoto Protocol‘s goals to curb global warming. During the talks, it became apparent that the Bush administration’s reason for shunning Kyoto’s standards – negative economic impact – in reality could be the ironic consequence of continued resistance toward Kyoto-inspired progress. Talks among the nearly 160 member countries focused on a global market to cap and trade carbon emissions that depends heavily on renewable energy, as well as wide-ranging efficiency technology in everything from vehicles to appliances. While cities such as Austin and the other 195 signatories of the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement have embraced the goals of Kyoto and realized its economic hurdles and opportunities, critics lament Bush’s head-in-the-sand stance toward Kyoto when he could be incentivizing development of U.S. clean energy and efficiency industries.
Alden Meyer, director of strategy and policy for the Union of Concerned Scientists, a D.C-based environmental group that has lobbied heavily for climate change progress, said, “Europe, Canada, Russia, and Japan decided to move forward without the United States. These nations understand that mandatory limits on global warming pollution, combined with market-based emissions trading mechanisms, are essential in mobilizing the private sector technology and capital needed to effectively confront the urgent threat of global warming.” Meyer predicts that “as the Kyoto climate regime deepens and broadens, U.S. business and industry will mount irresistible pressure on U.S. leaders to re-engage in the process, rather than be shut out of rapidly expanding markets for clean energy and vehicle technologies.” In Montreal, the UCS assembled a panel of 25 respected U.S. economists, including three Nobel laureates, who drafted a letter to the White House and Congress. It read: “If we want to develop and export the energy technologies of the future, then we need federal policies that create incentives for developing and rapidly deploying that technology. A national greenhouse gas cap-and-trade system is one such incentive, and should be pursued vigorously by the president and Congress.”
Aside from economic factors, fossil fuel burners such as the U.S., China, and India were urged to comply with Kyoto’s carbon dioxide reductions based on a series of frightening recent reports on climate change. The Washington Post reported on a recent study published in the journal Nature, in which University of Wisconsin and World Health Organization researchers found that climate change is driving up rates of malaria, malnutrition, and diarrhea worldwide, and that rising temperatures are estimated to contribute to more than 150,000 deaths and 5 million illnesses each year – a toll they say could double by 2030. New studies also point to glacial melt and its potential to raise ocean levels, burst the banks of glacial lakes, and disrupt weather systems. By flooding oceans with glacial fresh water, low-lying places risk inundation and weather system drivers such as the Gulf Stream could stall, drastically altering temperatures worldwide.
Back in Austin, Mayor Will Wynn pointed to his Nov. 30 promise, as part of the Energy Freedom Challenge, to derive 50% of Austin’s energy from renewable sources by 2025, as well as the Plug-In Austin campaign urging automakers to produce the ultra-efficient vehicles, which can be charged with West Texas wind-generated electricity. Wynn added via e-mail, “Austin is on the front lines of reducing emissions by making our roadways more efficient, delivering mass transit options and dramatically changing our land use patterns. We have also acted to reduce idling by large trucks.” Tom “Smitty” Smith of local clean energy advocate Public Citizen said that while Austin is one of the leading U.S. cities in reducing global warming gas, we could do even better by using renewable energy in every city department, aggressively cutting pollution from the city’s diesel vehicles, and accelerating the deployment of rapid transit, as well as more bikeable and walkable routes, across the city.
This article appears in December 16 • 2005.