International negotiators are currently deciding how strong the Kyoto Global Warming Protocol will be. While countries such as Great Britain are actually finding ways to reduce their emissions (oh by the way, U.S. autos emit more CO2 than every source in Great Britain combined!) negotiators for the U.S. are trying to avoid making any real reductions in our own emissions. Instead, the U.S. is promoting a system of pollution permit trading which would allow U.S. polluters to continue polluting as usual domestically while placing the burden of making real reductions upon other countries. The U.S. would then buy the "credits" earned by those countries making reductions.
Negotiators are trying to take advantage of every possible loophole and even create new ones. For example, the U.S. is trying to ensure that U.S. polluters will be able to continue to pollute, so long as they buy emissions reductions that have already occurred in Russia, which has shut down many polluting plants since 1990. This "Hot Air" loophole would mean that pollution that didn't come out of Russian tailpipes and smokestacks could come out of ours. The Administration is also seeking to allow the U.S. to get pollution reduction credits for merely keeping existing forests standing. And the nuclear industry is absolutely salivating at the US proposal that polluters could earn pollution credits from new nuclear power plants abroad.
The Sierra Club has taken a position against these risky trading schemes and opposes the use of "credits" as a right to pollute. Instead of passing the responsibility on to others and delaying any action, we're pressing for real reductions in domestic emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. We should be making our cars, powerplants and factories pollute less, not rely on less developed countries to clean up our mess.
TAKE ACTION. Contact the White House (phone: 202-456-1111, or email: president@whitehouse.gov. Urge President Clinton to instruct U.S. negotiators to stop weakening the Kyoto Protocol with loopholes designed to avoid making real reductions. We should take World leadership by cutting our own global warming emissions.