Russia joins Axis of Denial 18 May 04

First Putin’s economic adviser compared Kyoto to Auschwitz. Now the Russian Academy of Sciences too has come out against the beleaguered climate treaty. “The Kyoto Protocol has no scientific foundation,” is one of the Academy’s conclusions, according to a Reuters report. It isn’t meant to, of course. Everyone (except the deniers) acknowledges that Kyoto is only a small first step, and that we need something much stronger in the longer term to stave off dangerous climate change. But it seems like the Russians will join Bush’s America and Howard’s Australia in a new axis of denial, a cabal of head-in-the-sand rogue states all pretending that global warming isn’t happening. This leaves the EU almost alone amongst the industrialised world (with Japan) in its commitment to serious action. It must learn to use its economic muscle to push the deniers into action. They should not be allowed to free-ride on action by everyone else whilst continuing to pollute indiscriminately. The EU must block Russia’s accession to the World Trade Organisation, and move to impose ‘fossil energy sanctions’ on Australia and the US, so that their exports more accurately reflect the real environmental costs of production. Even if Kyoto dies, efforts to protect the global climate must continue – for all our sakes.