Complaint to Ofcom Regarding “The Great Global Warming Swindle”

It is especially disingenuous and misleading for the Channel 4 programme to pretend that Kyoto was designed to harm the world’s poorest nations, given that the primary reason the US Government gave for not ratifying the Kyoto Protocol was precisely the fact that the protocol contained no target for developing countries to reduce their emissions. See for example Wikipedia: http://tinyurl.com/2oefen, which states:

On July 25, 1997, before the Kyoto Protocol was finalized … the U.S. Senate unanimously passed by a 95–0 vote the Byrd-Hagel Resolution, which stated the sense of the Senate was that the United States should not be a signatory to any protocol that did not include binding targets and timetables for developing as well as industrialized nations. [The full text of the Byrd-Hagel Resolution is at http://tinyurl.com/2sa4yf].

The current President, George W. Bush, has indicated that he does not intend to submit the treaty for ratification, not because he does not support the Kyoto principles, but because of the exemption granted to China … Furthermore, the U.S. is concerned with broader exemptions of the treaty. For example, the U.S. does not support the split between Annex I [i.e. developed countries] countries and others [i.e. developing countries]. [Emphasis added].

Under the “Washington Declaration”, any requirement relating to developing countries that ends up in the successor to the Kyoto Protocol will be based on their achieving energy efficiency savings, with help from the West, not on preventing them from growing. See for instance the New Scientist report at http://tinyurl.com/2a3b86, which states:

On 14 and 15 February more than 100 legislators and officials from 13 countries met within the walls of the US Senate to discuss the future of international climate policy. At the close of the meeting they issued a statement setting out the components which they say will be essential for an international agreement on climate change when the Kyoto protocol expires in 2012, [which includes] emissions targets for all countries, according to historical responsibility and development needs. Developed countries must lead, with targets for developing country recognising their need for economic growth. [Emphasis added].

The people who will suffer – and are already suffering  – by far the most as a result of global warming are those who live in tropical regions – which is also where most of the world’s poorest people live. Under even the most conservative projections, severe droughts and severe floods will become far more frequent and far more severe in the tropics over the next few decades. For example, in the IPCC’s Climate Change 2001 Working Group II report covering “Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability”, at http://tinyurl.com/ 394n6f, it states:

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