He’s not running for president, nor is he even politically active, but former New York City mayor Ed Koch recently wrote a stirring editorial about global warming for the website Real Clear Politics. The piece, “We Need Fairness in Fight against Warming,” criticizes the Kyoto Protocol for disparately burdening industrialized and developing countries:
“That treaty effectively imposes severe limitations on the use by developed countries such as the U.S., Japan and Western Europe, of oil and coal which are primarily responsible for creating greenhouse gases, while exempting from mandatory reductions the so-called developing countries such as India and China.”
His argument assumes that all countries should proportionally reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Under Kyoto however, “Non-Annex 1,” or developing countries, are not obligated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but are allowed to sell carbon credits earned through domestic reduction plans known as Clean Development Mechanism. Meanwhile, “Annex-1,” or developed countries like the United States, would have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions a collective average of 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012. The Senate, citing the plan’s disproportionate treatment and “serious harm to the economy,” unanimously voted not to ratify the Kyoto Protocol in a 2002 resolution, a “responsible and fair” position writes Koch:
“Why is it acceptable to punish the U.S., its rich, middle and poor classes, reducing our standard of living and employment levels so that other countries can rise in theirs while we fall in ours?”
I’m not well enough informed to know whether Kyoto is a “fair” arrangement, but Koch’s argument neglects the fact that the United States emits more than 21 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide, the most formidable of the greenhouse gasses. In 2005, the average American was responsible for 20 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, compared to 7.9 in Europe, 1.2 in Africa, and .03 in Afghanistan. China, a non-Annex 1 country Koch criticizes for its role in global warming, stands at 4.1 (though is rapidly increasing its emissions and could soon be on par with U.S. emissions) The statistics, compiled by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, don’t lie. But Koch argues that it should always be this way:
“Most Americans, and I am among them, are not for a world government that might have as its ultimate goal a single standard of living for the people of this earth of which there are now more than six billion. Yes, we have been fortunate in achieving our current standard of living. But I don’t believe that we should agree to be punished for that by other countries sitting in envious judgment. To those who say we have succeeded on the backs of others, I say, there are very few countries, if any, that have not engaged in irresponsible activities equal to or worse than those perpetrated by the U.S,” Koch writes.
Cutting our own emissions to a point where we are equally responsible for global warming would undoubtedly bury our economy, not to mention our way of life. Global emissions parity isn’t realistic, but to say that we must make “universal and proportional” sacrifices seems equally misguided.
What do you think?
