The Forum > General Discussion > APEC Climate Change - all about spin.
APEC Climate Change - all about spin.
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Greenhouse-gas “intensity” is the emissions per unit economic output. Multiply this quantity by the size of the economy and you get total greenhouse-gas emissions.
Greenhouse-gas “intensity” has declined all by itself as the world's economy has evolved from manufacturing (which takes a lot of energy) to services (which take less) – as the technology becomes more efficient.
Over the past few decades U.S. greenhouse-gas “intensity” has declined somewhere between 1 and 2 percent per year WITHOUT any government pro-active policies to reduce GHG emissions.
Based on historical data, the APEC target of decreasing our greenhouse-gas “intensity” by 25 percent over 23 years is essentially a do-nothing target. A decrease of this amount would occur naturally. And given such a modest decrease in "intensity" we can still expect emissions to continue to grow rapidly – therefore climate change will continue unabated.
It should be clear that APEC leaders are either not making any legitimate effort to head off the risk of climate change or have been hoodwinked yet again by the only two countries not to ratify ‘Kyoto’ and whose agenda is to undermine the UNFCCC process for a post-Kyoto agreement.
Howard’s APEC "spin" could well be the rabbit he wanted to salvage his election hopes. In terms of climate change, he is deceiving the public who do not know the difference between GHG “intensity” and GHG emissions.