According to Agence France-Press on January 26, dateline Baghdad, "Iraq has formally
ratified the UN's Kyoto Protocol on climate change, according to a
government statement..."
Evidently, things are going so well over there that the
presidential council ratified a law by which the sovereign Republic
of Iraq will join the Framework Convention on Climate Change and
the Protocol.
Now, at long last, the Iraq government can start reducing its
carbon footprint. This is real progress. Just think, maybe they
could set up a cap-and-trade system to limit greenhouse gas
emissions and allow trading of carbon credits among sources anxious
to find least-cost ways of achieving emissions reductions.
Or maybe they could impose a revenue-neutral carbon tax while
offsetting its harmful economic effects by corresponding cuts on
corporate or personal income. Who needs to worry about a country in
the midst of sectarian and ethnic strife, jihadist insurrection,
and Iranian meddling when you can be battling global climate change
right there in the desert.
This amazing turn of events offers unlimited opportunity for
fairly droll commentary at best, and insensitive, even tasteless
humor at worst, two failings this writer will strive to avoid.
Still, how do you reduce a carbon footprint which is already
smaller than a ballerina's slipper? Don't you have to get some of
those big ugly, belching smokestacks fired up and spewing stuff
into the atmosphere first?
I am not an expert but don't you need a full-blown economic
system, up and running, before you start trying to green it up?
And what about the U.S. military forces risking life and limb to
patch up the bad job Saddam made of it? Does current
counter-insurgency doctrine now have to include reducing your
forces' greenhouse gas emissions on top of saving a country? What
are they going to do with all those Hummers? General Petraeus, call
your office!
So what explains Iraq's rather unusual exercise of national
sovereignty given its present circumstances? Follow the money. Iraq
will not have to do much of anything under Kyoto, but it may be
eligible for funding under Kyoto's Clean Development Mechanism
(CDM). This arrangement allows developed countries to invest in
emission-reducing projects in developing countries as an
alternative to what is generally considered more costly emission
reductions in their own.
So there may be method in the Iraqis' seeming madness.
topics:
Trade, Environment, Law, Military, Iraq, Iran
