On the road to Liberty

My IPN Press release titled IPN to Participate In Montreal COP-11 Climate Meeting: 'Global Climate Control Not Cost Effective– Will Undermine Sustainable Development' was published on International Policy Network on December 1 2006 London, 1 December: Environment ministers from around the world will gather in Montreal, Quebec, next week at the COP-11 climate change meeting. International Policy Network will send four individuals to Montreal to participate in COP-11 from 5 to 9 December: • Kendra Okonski, Environment Programme director of IPN • Oliver Hartwich, Research Fellow, IPN • Barun Mitra, director of the Liberty Institute in New Delhi, India • Juan Carlos Hidalgo, Costa Rican- based policy analyst and IPN Research Fellow. These individuals share the view that attempting to control the climate through mandatory restrictions on carbon emissions, through the Kyoto Protocol or similar measures, would be harmful and counterproductive for both wealthy and poor co...

The Kyoto protocol results from the flawed reasoning that there is a conflict between commerce and conservation. The Kyoto protocol would only throw the world's poor to a life of even more poverty. The usual victims of natural disasters are the poor as of their vulnerability. Contrary to the popular belief, they consume too little energy. My article titled " India and Kyoto " was published in TCS Daily on April 13th, 2005. Among environmentalism's most fundamental flaws are the beliefs that commerce is the enemy of conservation and that energy conservation will automatically lead to a cleaner environment. The Kyoto Protocol is the epitome of this flawed thinking. It seeks to promote energy efficiency and alternatives to fossil fuels by insisting on reductions in the emission of greenhouse gases in the industrialized world. The hope is that this will help stabilize climate. Even Kyoto proponents, though, admit that meeting the protocol's emissions' targets will...

Barun Mitra, co-author of Climate change and sustainable development (released 29 November 2004), writes "Not surprisingly, Kyoto does not sound convincing to the world's poor. For what this present debate over climate change has done is to divert attention from the core issue of mankind ó poverty." Mitra discusses a salient economic lesson from history ó "increased consumption stimulates efforts at improving efficiency, which in turn contributes to conservation, economic and environmental... The Kyoto protocol seeks to reverse this relationship by focusing on reducing consumption through punitive taxes and so on, which will not ultimately help conservation goals." My article titled Save the planet and the third world will pay was published In Sunday Times on December 5 2004. The Kyoto protocol was finally ratified a few weeks ago. It seeks to promote energy efficiency and alternatives to fossil fuels, and insists on reductions in the emission of greenhouse gas...