2001, Mike Hulme on Al Gore and Kyoto: Vanity over pragmatism

Email 1681

date: Fri Oct 12 09:23:34 2001
from: Mike Hulme <m.hulme@uea.ac.uk>
Shame about this - the meeting is indeed going ahead, and with a small USA presence. The
rest of the climate negotiating community are gearing up for it. These things happen - and
it's not my only climate story that has been squeezed by 11th Sept.
One explanation for why the USA signed Kyoto back in 1997 - with unrealistic goals - was
that Al Gore, heading the US delegation, was desperate to come back boasting of having
secured an environmental deal (his lifelong mission some may say) and thus his judgement
was compromised about what, in the end, the USA could deliver. Vanity over pragmatism.
Anyway, Bush has done Kyoto no harm in the long-run and one scenario may well see the US
forced to join late under pressure from US business - who don't want to be left out in the
cold from some big new global (carbon) market place.
I envy you in Ecuador!
Mike