John Redwood has been MP for Wokingham since 1987 and chaired the Conservative Party's Economic Competitiveness Policy Group. He has held a number of ministerial and shadow cabinet roles and writes a regular blog.
We need some common sense over global warming. The failure of the world’s leaders to agree a target based approach in Copenhagen should come as no surprise. They were unable to do so at Kyoto, where the USA, China and India opted out. Some of the European countries which did sign have so far failed to hit the targets they promised to meet.
The 2009 European Environment Report showed just five of the fifteen EU western member states already hitting their Kyoto targets. Countries like Spain, Italy and Canada experienced substantial rises in CO2 output in the early years of the Kyoto plans.
Some think a target-based approach is the answer. There are several problems with such a policy. There are no global sanctions against countries who sign up and then fail to hit the targets. Some states like China are reluctant to commit themselves to long range targets, as they see their growth and economic development as more important, and difficult to predict accurately. Some states like the European countries that have not hit their targets so far will sign up, but fail to deliver.
Most of these targets fall to be delivered by some future government at some date long after the next election, so governments can find it tempting to sign but to defer the action hitting the target would require. Many governments have in the past signed up to targets without having any detailed idea of who has to cut their carbon output. The targets require big changes of behaviour by many in the society, but governments find it difficult or unpalatable to force people to change their lifestyles to that extent.
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