(Note: The United Nations certainly appears to have many of the 'rich and powerful' in its pocket -- all under the banner of being ever so cooperative and compliant for 'the environment' and 'global warming' -- witness this masterpiece of language deception! Then, for a breath of fresh air, please visit this fine website: http://www.IceAgeNow.com/ )

January 29, 2003

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

CBC Moncton

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P.O. Box 950

Moncton, NB

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To submit a Letter to the Editor: deb_nobes@cbc.ca

FREDERICTON Oil industrialist Arthur Irving says the Kyoto Accord to reduce greenhouse gas emmissions is good for Canada and won't hurt his company.

The oil and gas industry has opposed Kyoto, saying the treaty could harm the energy sector and the economy in general.

Kyoto backgrounder CBC.ca (This is a whole second article, complete text immediately below this article.)

http://cbc.ca/news/indepth/background/kyoto_protocol.html

The position of the president of Irving Oil is remarkable, as a dissenting voice from one of the industry's major players.

Arthur Irving was in an environmentally friendly frame of mind Tuesday when he accepted a Queen's Jubilee Medal for his volunteer work with Ducks Unlimited. "If we can do something to help the environment, it's straight up with us. We do it."

Irving says his company is ahead of the curve, and well-positioned to to comply with Kyoto, pointing out that Irving Oil has been selling low-sulphur gasoline for years. "We were the only oil company in Canada that met the specifications of the car manufacturers and to this day we're the only company out there. So we're three years ahead of the market."

Irving isn't convinced about suggestions that Kyoto will weaken oil companies and cost Canada jobs. "I think anything that really helps the environment in the long haul there, it's good for everybody and everybody will benefit from it."

Irving says his company is prepared to go along with any Kyoto implementation plan the federal government develops.

© Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

http://nb.cbc.ca/template/servlet/View?filename=nb_irvingkyoto20030129

-----Second Article-----

The Kyoto Protocol -- THE U.S. DROPS OUT: The fight to stop climate change has received a major blow.

March 2001 (Updated September 2002)

By Owen Wood, CBC News Online

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

CBC Moncton

250 University Avenue

P.O. Box 950

Moncton, NB

E1C 8N8

To submit a Letter to the Editor: deb_nobes@cbc.ca

The United States says it won't ratify the Kyoto protocol, which calls on industrialized nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. President George W. Bush says global warming issues are very serious, but the country's energy shortages and economy are more important.

When it comes to greenhouse gases, the U.S. is not just a key political player, it's also the biggest offender. The U.S. produces more carbon dioxide than any other country, about 20 tonnes of airborne carbon per person per year, according to the International Energy Agency.

The Kyoto protocol was agreed upon through international co-operation under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which was created in 1992.

Simply put, the UNFCCC has one goal: to deal with the fact that human activity is changing the way energy from the sun affects the Earth's atmosphere. More specifically, the Kyoto accord aims to reduce greenhouse gases, such as the carbon dioxide released from automobiles and smoke stacks, which scientists say are linked to rising temperatures and changing weather patterns around the world.

However, global warming remains a heated debate. Other scientists oppose linking greenhouse gases to rising temperatures, saying climate change is a natural part of our planet's evolution.

The Kyoto protocol came out of the UNFCCC's December 1997 meeting held in Kyoto, Japan. Under the agreement, industrialized nations must reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases by an average of 5.2 per cent (from 1990 levels) by the period 2008 to 2012.

The Kyoto treaty was then brought to New York and, on March 16, 1998, it was opened for signatures. Within a year, 84 nations had signed.

Canada signed the Kyoto protocol on April 29, 1998. On that same day, Japan, Brazil, Australia, and most of western Europe signed as well.

However, the Americans weren't so quick to adopt the treaty. The problem was that while other nations had come to terms with the idea that cuts to greenhouse gases had to be made, the Americans were still getting a grip on the economic impact the Kyoto protocol would have on their fossil fuel industries. The U.S. was afraid that companies producing products such as coal would be forced to abide by rules that their competitors in developing nations didn't have.

The U.S. did finally sign the Kyoto protocol in November 1998.

But signing, which represents a nation's agreement to the treaty's principles, is only the first step. The treaty must still be passed (or ratified) by the government of each nation before it becomes legally binding.

In the U.S. this would take at least another two years, which meant if it was to pass it wouldn't be until after the 2000 election, after Bill Clinton was no longer president. And Kyoto's chances of being passed through the Senate were already not very good.

The day before the U.S. announced it wouldn't ratify the treaty, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Christie Whitman said the reason President Bush wouldn't back the Kyoto protocol was not that he didn't care about global warming, but that he simply wasn't interested in a treaty that Congress was unlikely to ratify.

Indeed, how to implement the promises made in Kyoto is still a question that's yet to be answered – so much so that some argue the treaty is doomed to fail even if the U.S. decides to join in.

The UNFCCC conference held in The Hague, the Netherlands in December 2000 ended without a solution. And Canada seemed part of the problem.

Canada was criticized by environmentalists for what they described as trying to use loopholes to undermine the commitments it made in Kyoto. Canada, along with the U.S. and Japan, proposed a plan that would allow it to get credit for what are called "carbon sinks" forests and lands that absorb carbon dioxide pollution which would help Canada meet its Kyoto obligations.

The critics, among which were the 15 countries that make up the European Union, say the plan distracts from the root cause of the problem the world's dependency on fossil fuels.

So far, Canada has hardly come far in reducing its greenhouse gas emissions. It's still producing more and more air pollution each year. Figures released by Ottawa in September 2000 show greenhouse gas emissions were 13 per cent higher in 1998 than in 1990.

But the news wasn't all bad. The figures also showed a drop in the amount of additional emissions created each year. Canada produced only one per cent more emissions in 1998 than 1997. In the mid 1990s emissions were increasing by about three per cent each year.

As for the Kyoto protocol, the loss of American support is definitely a disappointment, but it doesn't mean the the whole thing will go up in smoke.

At talks in Bonn, Germany July 2001, European nations pledged to push ahead without the United States, saying it could join later.

Environmentalists urged Canada to do the same, instead of waiting for the U.S.

At the Johannesburg summit in September 2002, Prime Minister Chretien announced that he will ask Parliament to ratify the agreement before the end of the year.

© Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

http://cbc.ca/news/indepth/background/kyoto_protocol.html