Word: carbonic
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...optimism broke on the rocks of realism. How can any fractional reduction in energy consumption or carbon dioxide (CO2) output in a small region of well-off America make a noticeable difference while mammoth developing nations such as China and India go on a rampage of power plant-building and car-buying? Will the environmental blindness of the economic growth of these and other developing countries—not to mention continued energy-intensive expansion in America—nullify the effect of every green project for years to come...
...John Howard would not be high on your list. The conservative politician - and "mate of steel" to George W. Bush, according to the U.S. President - refused to enact the Kyoto Protocol and has long expressed doubt about global warming. Australia is second only to the U.S. in per-capita carbon dioxide emissions among major countries, and it's the world's biggest exporter of coal, the cheap, dirty fuel responsible for a quarter of the world's total carbon emissions...
...having a change of heart - at least rhetorically. Australia is hosting the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum this week, and Howard, with Bush's approval, has pushed climate change to the top of the agenda. He wants APEC - made up of 21 nations bordering the Pacific, including big carbon emitters like the U.S., China, Russia and Japan - to consider long-term "aspirational goals" on reducing carbon emissions, rather than the binding cuts called for in Kyoto. Such flexibility, he argues, would help bring major developing economies like China - which isn't required to make any cuts under Kyoto - into...
...still insist that China must move first - and by an American electorate that still remains underwhelmed by the threat of climate change. But there's some hope that progress can be made even if the U.S. and China stay in their corners. Indonesia - the world's third-biggest carbon emitter, thanks to its rapid rates of deforestation - has just announced that it will host a meeting in New York City on Sept. 24 of eight countries with tropical rainforests, to discuss using the international carbon market to fund tree preservation. "Having the world's third-largest emitter leading a group...
...APEC is, after all, a big player: its members account for about 60% of global carbon emissions, more than all the countries that have agreed to take action under Kyoto. Many of those members are developing nations, with mushrooming emissions and, under Kyoto, no obligation to limit them. "If we could get all 21 economies to agree to make some kind of a contribution to address the issue," Downer says, "it would be a very big step forward." Alan Oxley, chairman of the Australian APEC Study Center at Monash University, agrees. "The Chinese will not accept the sort of regulation...