Island on course to meet Kyoto agreement

Thursday 24th February 2011, 2:29PM GMT.

GREENHOUSE gas emissions in Guernsey increased by more than 10% in 2009, but despite that the island was still inside the Kyoto Protocol target, according to latest figures.

Statistics in the annual greenhouse gas bulletin suggest that despite the rise, Guernsey is still on target to meet the agreement by 2012.

The protocol sets a total target reduction of greenhouse gas emissions of 12.5% over the years 2008 to 2012, compared with the value for emissions in 1990.

By comparison, the latest bulletin states that the cumulative change between 1990 and the 2008 to 2009 average resulted in an emissions fall of 17.9%.

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View more: Carbon Emissions news, Kyoto Agreement news.

1
Michelle Levrier

March 10, 2011 at 11:44 am

Can anyone explain why, if the price of nuclear electricity is linked to oil prices, that nuclear power is still perceived to have no carbon emissions?

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2
ChrisJ

March 10, 2011 at 2:06 pm

Michelle,

The cost of all electricity is linked, regardless of how it’s generated or whether carbon emissions come out of that process. That’s because the product is just electricity, it’s being sold into an increasingly globalised energy market, and the people who produce it will always seek to get the best price possible when they sell it.

Nuclear power does indeed have associated carbon emissions (much lower than burning oil though). But the real issue is how we attribute those carbon emissions – I believe under Kyoto, the emissions are not attributed to us unless we actually emit the greenhouse gases within Guernsey. So all our imported electricity is emissions-free under Kyoto.

So we will indeed meet the Kyoto agreement, but this achievement will be worthless as far as the environment is concerned. The UK is in a similar boat. It will meet its obligations not by actually cutting back on anything or making anything more efficient, but simply by offshoring much of its industry to China.

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