The unequal costs of the Kyoto accord

September 4, 2002

Free Market Foundation

The economic impact of the Kyoto protocol on global climate change on the United States would be at least four times greater than on Europe, say experts. Kyoto would require participating developing countries to reduce their emissions of so-called greenhouse gases implicated in global climate change.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration and most independent economists put the annual cost at around 2 percent of U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), with some estimates as high as 4 percent, or $3,000 per year for each household.

According to Yale University economist William Nordhaus, the Kyoto accord and the more recent Bonn agreement would reduce the competitiveness of the U.S. with respect to the European Union and other high-income countries, principally Japan, Canada and Australia.

If the U.S. had joined Koto, its total abatement costs would have been $2.2 trillion, while Europe’s costs would have been $0.5 trillion.

Source: S. Fred Singer (Science and Environmental Policy Project), The Unequal Costs of Kyoto, Washington Times, June 17, 2002.

For text: http://www.sepp.org/NewSEPP/UnequalCostOfKyoto.htm
For more on Global Warming http://www.ncpa.org/iss/eco

FMF Policy Bulletin\27 August 2002