Kyoto costs

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: $2.2 billion. US: $22 billion.
NZ: $500 million. Australia: $3.75 billion. US: $37 billion.
NZ: $1.2 billion. Australia: $9 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.