Thursday, July 14, 2005
KYOTO KOST
New Zealand’s trustworthy treasury says the government’s Kyoto Kaper will cost the pacifist islands only $303 million, although other estimates put the eventual cost at anywhere between $500 million to $1.2 billion. That’s for a population of just four million. If similar debts were incurred by Australia and the US, we’d be looking—based on relative population size—at these remarkable figures:
NZ: $303 million. Australia: $1.5 billion. US: $22 billion.
NZ: $500 million. Australia: $2.5 billion. US: $37 billion.
NZ: $1.2 billion. Australia: $6 billion. US: $90 billion.
(Most of that cash, by the way, would be sent to Russia, who you might remember from such environmental successes as Chernobyl.) A group of Kiwi industrialists sensibly want the government to ditch its Kyoto policy. An election due later this year, however, may see the government itself ditched.
UPDATE. Richard McEnroe in comments: “The upside of Kyoto is that it lets CS buy spelling credits from more literate nations ...”
UPDATE II. Figures above corrected. Apologies for idiocy.