Kyoto Math

From the Wall Street Journal. You may need a subscription, but there's the link and here is the gist:

Let's go to the latest numbers from the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen. Most European countries have seen an increase in greenhouse gas emissions since signing onto Kyoto with great fanfare in 1997. As the table nearby shows, 13 out of the 15 original signatories from the EU are on track to miss their 2010 treaty targets -- by as much as 33 percentage points, in the case of Spain.
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The Bush Administration has continued a longstanding U.S. policy of pushing states, municipalities and private industry to reduce emissions that actually lower the quality of air and water. The U.S. saw a modest decline in greenhouse emissions of 0.8% between 2000 and 2002, according to data from the Department of Energy. Overall since 1990, greenhouse emissions are up 15.8% but this still puts the U.S. far ahead of many of its European critics. And the U.S., a booming economy, would seem to be at a disadvantage in any emissions comparison with Europe, which has recorded far less buoyant growth numbers.
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Alas, no one is talking about reducing the amount of hot air produced by politicians. At the U.N.'s environmental summit in Montreal last year, EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas of Greece spoke grandly of Europe's continuing leadership in the reduction of greenhouse gases. Prime Minister Paul Martin of Canada, another Kyoto diehard, chimed in that America lacked a "global conscience." For the record, Greece and Canada saw emissions rise 23% and 24%, respectively, since 1990, far above the U.S. rate.