Okay, for any number of reasons, don’t count me among the cheering fans of the Kyoto Accord. With its problems and seemingly troubled history, perhaps even more credit should be given to this indication that Kyoto is working:
The greenhouse gas emissions of 40 industrialized nations that signed the Kyoto Protocol treaty in 1997 have collectively dropped by an average of 5 percent below 1990 levels, the UN reported on Monday.
Now, that 5% is the target for 2012. What is creating concern is that the fall occurred in the 1990s, mainly due to changes in central and eastern Europe (both cleaning up dirty industry and economic challenges). Between 2000 and 2006, emissions increased by 2.6 percent. While that increase is well below global rates, it is an increase rather than drop.