BBC News:Trade can 'export' CO2 emissions (unintended by-product)

[Up2Late]

(They say this has long been the argument of "...critics of the Protocol." For the record, I had not heard this argument before now)

Trade can 'export' CO2 emissions

By Richard Black
Environment Correspondent, BBC News website

New research from the US shows that trade can significantly affect emissions of greenhouse gases.

Monday, 19 December 2005, 16:10 GMT

Researchers found that US imports of goods from China cause a greater production of carbon dioxide than if the goods were made in the US. Factories in developing countries tend to use more energy than in the west.

The researchers say emissions control measures such as the Kyoto Protocol could "export" carbon-intensive industries to the developing world. This has long been a contention raised by critics of the Protocol.

In a briefing just before the UN climate negotiations in Montreal, President Bush's chief environmental advisor James Connaughton told reporters that setting targets for emissions may "...cause a shift offshore of some energy-intensive industries.

This issue of "carbon leakage" is matched in controversy potential by another related argument; that western countries own up to emissions produced within their shores, when in fact they should be responsible for all emissions connected with the goods and products which they consume. They are "saving" their own emissions, the argument goes, at the expense of developing countries.

<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4542104.stm>
(more at link above)

[Lisa]

1. plus, all that energy burned to move goods over here ...

And even shifting partially-assembled stuff between countries, chasing the lowest labor costs. If the emissions from transport are figured in, overseas products aren't as much of a $ saving as they appear!