Kyoto protocol: The Kyoto protocol on CO2 emissions will fail to achieve an adequate reduction in emissions even if it is fully implemented, a leading economist claimed yesterday.
Addressing the conference of the Dublin Economic Workshop, UCD economist Colm McCarthy called for the introduction of energy taxes as an alternative to setting targets for emission reductions.
"It is clear that the Kyoto approach and its offshoots, including the EU's emissions trading system, are in serious trouble. The failure of the United States to accede to Kyoto is a well-known limitation, but many acceding countries are failing to stay inside their allocated limits," Mr McCarthy said.
Even if all countries involved in the protocol adhered to its targets, it would not deliver the change scientists are calling for. Mr McCarthy added that it was difficult to measure emissions and that systems established to do this were unreliable.
"Any quantity-type policy is wide open to corruption in a way in which a tax policy is not . . . If you have quantitative emission permits rather than taxes, the opportunities and temptation to abuse the system is significant," he said.
Pointing to the German government's subsidising of the coal industry, he said many EU governments' policies were offsetting benefits that Kyoto may provide.
He criticised the Government's recent Green Paper on energy for dismissing the option of nuclear power while encouraging peat-burning stations.
"State support for these high-emission stations contrasts sharply with the Government's stated intentions, including support for low-emission renewables," he said.
