US export success

[Mark Jones]

Greenhouse gas emissions soar in defiant US

Special report: George Bush's America

Anthony Browne, environment correspondent
Sunday July 1, 2001
The Observer

America, the world's biggest producer of greenhouse gases, is polluting the
planet on a greater scale than ever before.
Official figures show its emissions of carbon dioxide - the main contributor
to global warming - are accelerating rapidly, while other industrialised
countries are cutting their output.

Its output of the gas jumped almost 3 per cent last year, twice the previous
rate of growth, and the biggest increase for years, according to the US
Energy Information Administration. The US, with just 5 per cent of the
world's population, produces a quarter of the world's greenhouse gases.

Robert Williams, of the Princeton University Center for Energy and
Environmental Studies, said: 'It's an astonishingly large increase in a
single year. The major reason is we don't have a policy to address this
problem. We need to have a national target, incentives for business and a
regulatory system that will get us to meeting national goals.'

Kate Hampton, climate change co-ordinator for Friends of the Earth
International, said: 'This confirms the US as the world's climate change
pariah. It has completely failed to do anything to curb its emissions.'

The US sparked fury in Europe and the rest of the world by refusing to
ratify the Kyoto protocol which would require it to cut carbon dioxide
emissions. President George W. Bush, whose campaign was largely financed by
oil companies, said it would harm the US economy. He also reneged on a
campaign promise to force power stations to control carbon dioxide
emissions.

The US rejection of the Kyoto treaty has thrown the entire international
effort to control global warming into doubt. European countries, including
the UK and Russia, have said they will ratify the treaty without US
participation. However, Japan, Australia and Canada may use it as an excuse
not to take part.

The increase in US carbon dioxide emissions is partly because its economy
continued to grow, increasing demand for fossil fuels to produce
electricity, and average temperatures dropped after several years of warm
weather, increasing demand for fossil fuels for heating. However, the
energy-hungry lifestyle of Americans, and the fashion for bigger cars, is
also a major contribution.

In sharp contrast to the US, many other countries have managed to reduce
their emissions of carbon dioxide without harming their economies.

China, the world's second-largest generator of greenhouse gases, has reduced
its emissions by 17 per cent since the mid-1990s by replacing old coal-fired
power plants with more efficient ones. During that period, China's economic
output grew 36 per cent.

Britain's emissions have fallen to a 10-year low because it has replaced
coal-fired power plants with natural gas plants, which emit less carbon
dioxide.