First Step for Climate Change | Green Energy News

November 14, 2004 – Vol.9 No.34

FIRST STEP FOR CLIMATE CHANGE.

Mark February 16, 2005 on your calendar. Have a little party. (Maybe have a celebratory drink. Cheers!) The Kyoto Protocol - the first baby step in keeping global warming in check will become legally binding on that day, a Wednesday.

Legally the U.S. won’t be involved. But American companies will probably take advantage of the treaty, if they can, by selling energy efficient and renewable energy products to markets in the Kyoto reach.

Kyoto, by itself, will have only minimal effect, if any, on the global problem. Scientists say we need about a 60-percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions to get things under control. The 5.2 percent, on average, reduction by complying countries isn’t enough. We need about 12 Kyotos along with once-developing, now-industrial nations, like China, to be brought on board.

Keep your fingers crossed. Critics of Kyoto, including the Bush Administration, claim Kyoto will do economic damage. Let’s hope the opposite comes true. A greater commercialization of clean and green energy technologies could become a job-creating economic driver needed in every economy on the planet.