Scrapheap Kyoto, Failures in leadership at G8
Back in 2005 I analysed Kyoto as a document of economic privilege rather than environmental protection. Now the G8 statement on climate change is announced with considerable chatter on the margins gaining pace for the scrapping of Kyoto. Some links:
- Global Dashboard: Kicking Kyoto
- Democracy Journal: Nordhaus and Schellenberger say ‘Scrap Kyoto’
- Nature: Gwyn Pryns and Steve Rayner on ‘Time to Ditch Kyoto’
What needs careful watching by the media is that Kyoto is replaced or built on for the right reasons.
Compare this: UK leading the way?
These are some key parts of the G8 statement on climate:
We reaffirm our commitment to take strong leadership in combating climate change. G8 Statement
Really? Not according to NASA’s James Hansen. This is what he has said in an open letter to the Japanese Prime Minister:
If but one country would step forth to lead in this direction, it could be a turning point. Leaders in both the United Kingdom and Germany, with high per capita historical emissions, would seem to be good candidates, yet they have hesitated, despite “green” credentials.
This backs up a report released last week that Britain’s emissions have been rising far faster than admitted.
Some other highlights:
We promote clean energy, given its importance in tackling climate change and for the enhancement of energy security, by setting national goals and formulating action plans followed by appropriate monitoring. We believe that there are significant and growing economic and employment opportunities in this sector. G8 Statement
Growing economies remains the basis of each and every option for responding to the climate crisis.
We witness that a growing number of countries have expressed their interests in nuclear power programs as a means to addressing climate change and energy security concerns. G8 Statement
Notice how the mode of address is passive. ‘We witness’ rather than ‘We actively lobby and drive for’ nuclear power. This is very much in contrast to the rest of the document (’we emphasize’, ‘we encourage’, ‘we promote’). The meticulous rhetorical care given to the wording of this particular statement tells us a huge amount about the thinking around nuclear among the G8. (Critical Discourse Analysis applied).
To accelerate these and other efforts… To respond to the growing demand for Earth observation data, we will accelerate efforts… we are committed to increasing investment… the promotion of commercialization…
It was acceleration that got us into this mess in the first place. It’s time to slow things down.
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