25 Economists Urge Bush To Do Something - Anything - To Cut Emissions

[hatrack]

A group of influential US economists yesterday urged President George W. Bush to drop his opposition to mandatory cuts in carbon emissions, saying it would cost just 1 per cent of gross national product. The 25 economists, including three Nobel laureates and a former member of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, said therising costs of inaction on global warming, blamed for an increase in weatherdamage and a loss of agric-ultural productivity, vastly outweighed the small costof action.

Geoffrey Heal, of the Columbia Business School, told the Financial Times: "The cost of implementing the Kyoto protocol is about 1 per cent of GNP. That is about one or two quarters of growth."

They said market-based mechanisms, such as setting limits on the amount of carbon dioxide countries could produce, and allowing them to trade carbon allowances with one another, were key to achieving emissions cuts. The economists made their call as ministers from around the world arrived in Montreal, Canada to discuss the United Nations-brokered Kyoto protocol, including what should replace its current provisions when they expire in 2012.

EDIT

The US, which has rejected the Kyoto treaty as harmful to its economy, has signalled its refusal to accept any start to negotiations on the protocol's future stages. The US favours co-operation on new technologies, such as hydrogen and "clean" coal, that would lower greenhouse gas emissions in the future. Proponents of Kyoto fear the US stance will prevent any significant progress being made at the Montreal meeting.

EDIT

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/77ed9aa0-678f-11da-a650-0000779e2340.html

[roguevalley]

1. I cannot believe the world is being held hostage by this butt hole.

go after the congress and twist their noses. they can put anything through and he in the end can't do it. forget bush. he's too stupid. target the asses in congress.