E.U. misses Kyoto targets

Brussels

The European Union has failed to meet emissions standards set by the Kyoto environmental accord. In the past year, in fact, the E.U.’s 15 countries actually increased their total release of greenhouse gases. The European Environment Agency said this week that emissions were 1 percent greater in 2001, the last year for which data is available, than in 2000. That was embarrassing news for the E.U., which lobbied hard for a global treaty to cut greenhouse gases and ridiculed the Bush administration’s argument that the targets were not realistic. Overall, European emissions are down 2.3 percent from their 1990 level, but the union has little chance of meeting its end goal of an 8 percent reduction by 2010. We’re “a long way off track,” said E.U. Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom.