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		Letter to the Editor Daily Telegraph - Tuesday 29th November 2005 Dear Sir, Media reports on the Montreal "Son of Kyoto" meeting are presenting the USA as totally intransigent, and totally reckless in the face of the "global catastrophe" of climate change. They are mistaken. If we look at the latest reliable data on changes in aggregate Greenhouse Gas Emissions since 1990, on the UNFCCC website, we find that the USA at +14% is well below several European countries (Greece, Spain, Monaco), and ironically, also below the Montreal host country, Canada, at +20%. Maybe the pot is calling the kettle black. The US is not dismissing the issue of climate change. It is merely arguing that internationally agreed mandatory limits don't work. Anyone who looks at the way Kyoto is going will be forced to agree. Even Tony Blair, formerly a cheer-leader for Kyoto, has recognised the reality that the economic pain required is unrealistic. If the USA has concluded that targets don't work, there is little point in them entering negotiations about the level of targets. The USA in fact has a range of realistic and measured policy responses which will arguably be much more effective than the failed Kyoto approach. The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has brought forward proposals for massive reductions in particulate and NOx emissions from heavy diesel engines by 2014, and to require coal-burning power plants to make the steepest emission cuts in a decade. An EPA partnership with the freight industry will eliminate at least 33 million tons of CO2 and up to 200,000 tons of NOx emissions annually by 2012. The USA is addressing the greenhouse gas and climate change issues, but it is doing it in a typically American, hard-headed, practical way that, unlike Kyoto, may actually deliver. Yours faithfully Roger Helmer MEP