Slashdot Mirror
EU Sets Goal To Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions 40% By 2030
An anonymous reader writes: The 28 nations in the European Union agreed Friday to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 40% (going by 1990 levels) by the year 2030. The deal received widespread criticism; industry bosses said the 2030 targets were too extreme, while many environmental groups said the goals weren't ambitious enough. The deal requires each nation to achieve the goal independently — earlier targets could use international offsets to avoid or reduce action. EU officials hope the agreement will encourage the U.S. and China to take a more aggressive stance on fighting climate change.
A few points of order though.
- Clinton signed Kyoto but never sent it to the senate. The reason being is it never had support from either party and would have died by about 90 votes.
- Second, W could have withdrawn from Kyoto with a stroke of a pen as the President can cancel treaties.
- And finally, treaties inherently do not have the force of law behind them. They do not supersede Federal, State or even individual rights (see the recent Bond v US ruling). Now the Obama admin doesn't agree with this as they argued that a treaty trumps everything....but as we know with Obama/Holder, just because he says its doesn't mean its true.