The anti-capitalist Kyoto Protocol is dead. Despite what anti-Bush greens are sure to claim, it wasn't just President Bush that killed it. Aparently countries trying to claw their way out of the Third World weren't looking forward to having to having to rein in their economic output either.

The conventional wisdom that it's the United States against the rest of the world in climate change diplomacy has been turned on its head. Instead it turns out that it is the Europeans who are isolated. China, India, and most of the rest of the developing countries have joined forces with the United States to completely reject the idea of future binding GHG emission limits. At the conference here in Buenos Aires, Italy shocked its fellow European Union members when it called for an end to the Kyoto Protocol in 2012. These countries recognize that stringent emission limits would be huge barriers to their economic growth and future development.

The environmental treaty won't be repealed, but with it set to expire in 2012 and not be renewed, it's doubtful that member countries will take it very seriously.