The EU scores again

The EU carbon market is now worth €28 billion annually, and represents the EU's best attempt at reaching its Kyoto targets. But, as a measure for "saving the planet" – even if you did believe in anthropogenic global warming – it seems to be a tad less than effective.

According to estimates released yesterday, overall carbon dioxide emissions for 2007 were "roughly flat" while EU industry emissions in the six largest countries rose some 1.2 percent.

That estimate is based on initial data from the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), which includes more than 10,000 large industrial plants, leading the environmental group Greenpeace to declare that the scheme is failing.

Most notable was the UK, he said, which went over its allocation by about 85 million tons for the three-year period between 2005 and 2007. Power generators in the UK, Italy and Spain all exceeded their allowances – and that was despite a mild winter.

Thus, for all the hype, the huge expense, the acres of extruded verbal material in the media, the net effect of the activity is a slight increase in emissions. Perhaps it is just as well that the idea of man-made global warming is a total crock. If we were actually reliant on the EU to save us from being fried, we would be in very serious trouble.

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