Global Warming and CO2 Emissions Blog

This week, state governments in both Australia and the U.S. passed legislation designed to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Both nations are the only major industrialized countries that have refused to sign the Kyoto protocol on global warming, which sets targets for the emissions reduction.

In Australia, Prime Minister John Howard's conservative government refused to support a plan by state leaders to introduce caps on carbon dioxide emissions, saying it would devastate the economy. Howard's government has repeatedly said the 1997 agreement would unfairly hamper Australia's economy, which is heavily dependent on exporting coal and other carbon-rich energy sources.

The economics of global warming is relatively unknown today with many industries viewing the emissions controls as an additional and others are finding opportunity for new technologies and business lines.

But the leaders of Australia's six states and two territories - all members of the Labor party that is in opposition nationally - have sought to bypass the government's refusal to sign Kyoto by introducing their own plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

The so-called "cap and trade" plan gives companies a maximum emissions target for three polluting gases - carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide - and would result in large fines to those that exceed their caps.

The plan, detailed in a paper released Wednesday, would also allow low-polluting companies to trade their remaining carbon emissions credits for money or credit.

Without the federal government's support, the plan will be difficult to enforce.

South Australia state Premier Mike Rann said the regional leaders were forced to act because the federal government was not properly addressing the issue of global warming. "Ultimately this is a failure of national leadership," Rann told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio. "Ultimately someone's got to do it. The stakes are too high."

Australia's federal Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane dismissed the scheme, saying it would further increase Australia's burgeoning energy costs. According to Macfarlane, "that sort of impact on the economy would be devastating."

He said the government was investing in other methods of greenhouse gas reduction, including an experimental technology that would allow carbon dioxide emissions to captured and pumped underground for storage.

In the U.S., seven northeastern U.S. states announced that they had agreed on a model rule that would create the country's first market for heat-trapping carbon dioxide by curbing emissions at power plants.

The agreement, called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, is relatively weak compared to the European Trading Scheme, the emissions trading program set up by the European Union to meet its obligations under the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.

States in the western U.S. such as California are also trying to form regional regulations on greenhouse gas emissions. Some experts have suggested that companies facing emissions reductions standards on each coast would lobby for a single national regulatory standard.

The RGGI would cap carbon dioxide emissions at about current levels at power plants from 2009 until 2015. Emissions at the plants would then be gradually reduced by 10 percent by 2019.

The first round of the Kyoto pact requires developed countries to cut greenhouse emissions by 5.2 percent of 1990 levels from 2008 to 2012.

The RGGI was initiated in 2003 by Republican New York Gov. George Pataki.

Massachusetts and Rhode Island dropped out of the group late last year, saying the agreement could boost electricity rates. The RGGI said in a statement on Tuesday that homeowners would pay at most an additional $21 annually and would eventually save money as the plan helps power plants become more efficient.

Many Massachusetts legislators expect the state will rejoin the pact when Gov. Mitt Romney, also a Republican, leaves office. Romney is not seeking reelection in 2006.

The states participating in RGGI are Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Vermont. Maryland recently adopted legislation requiring the state to join RGGI by June 2007. The states now each have to approve the model rule.

Several bills in the U.S. Congress seek to create a national greenhouse emissions market.

Why is are the U.S. and Australian feds having such a hard time comng to grips with this issue? Have an opinion, submit a comment here.

Labels: carbon dioxide emissions, environmental activism, global warming