Tired of having the Kyoto protocol thrown in your face by self-righteous, pontificating Europeans? Next time they try the gambit, point them to yesterday’s speech by EU Environment Comissioner Stavros Dimas, who admitted that the EU is on track to breach its obligations under the treaty.

This is a first, as previously the Europeans have tried playing Jedi mind tricks when people pointed out that emissions were rising (“These aren’t the figures you’re looking for.”) Now, however, the facts have become so blindingly obvious that they’ve been forced to play the game of “Yes, but…”, promising magic bullets and miracle cures that will somehow allow the EU-15 to hit the target. This is fantasy football, erm, soccer. If the Europeans breach their targets, then under rules they themselves insisted on, they will incur a massive penalty in any future Kyoto rounds and will be unable to use the emissions trading scheme they tout as the answer to everyone’s problems (a scheme that was actually an American idea from the mid-90s).

No wonder Tony Blair has decided Kyoto’s a dead loss. He could do with telling someone in his Environment ministry, though.