It can't get anything right…

Courtesy of The Times this morning, we learn that the amount of greenhouse gas pumped into European skies rose by up to 30 million tons last year despite the EU's pledge to lead the world in tackling climate change.

The paper cites EU commission figures which show that the much-heralded emissions trading scheme failed to achieve the cuts in industrial pollution needed to hit Kyoto targets. In 18 of the 27 EU countries, European companies and power generators produced 1.79 billion tons of greenhouse gas last year, largely because too many permits were issued under the scheme.

However, the commission is now planning to impose deep cuts in national allocation plans for 2008-12, with Slovakia cut by 50 percent and Poland by 26 percent. The Polish cut should be fun though. If that ever starts to bite, we should have an interesting little argument between the Polish government and its EU masters. More likely, the Poles – like every other country – will go through the motions and fail to meet the target.

We are so fortunate that these emissions have nothing to do with global warming – otherwise we might be in trouble.

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