Date published: 2006/06/27
The BBC says:
The German government is about to trigger a new crisis in Europe's flagship climate policy, the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).
BBC News understands the German cabinet is likely to agree a deal that will reduce carbon emissions from industry by only 0.6% between 2004 and 2012.
The decision is likely to influence other EU countries, including the UK, which still have to set their own caps.
Environmental groups describe the target as "pathetic and shameful".
...
The news will offer comfort to US climate sceptics who predicted that Europe would talk big on climate change but fail to impose large carbon cuts on its own industries.
There is something wrong with an emissions trading scheme where governments can arbitrarily decide what the targets are from year to year. Of course it is also economically suicidal for Europe to reduce carbon emissions if the rest of the industrialised world does not do the same.
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