Roger Pielke Jr. and Benny Peiser have both noted that this month’s “historic breakthrough” claimed by the EU on its self-proclaimed “world leadership” on combatting continental drif . . . er, climate change – a decision by its Council on post-2012 actions — is riddled with loopholes. And it is likely (my word) to result in a 4 percent reduction in emissions. Which is something shy of the 20 percent they are shouting from the rooftops.

And even that requires a clever little baseline stunt of comparing performance against 1990 emissions, in order to take “emission reduction” credit for an unrelated “dash to gas” by the UK (when Lady Thatcher went after the coal miners who serially crippled the economy), and post-Soviet economic collapse. (By the way, I just encountered Friends of the Earth-Europe noting that this is now being called “early action” by nine former Soviet states. Hilarious.)

This means they really haven’t promised any Kyoto reductions, at all. But they are demanding that we do it. And in our case, we’ll be subject to enforcement in the courts by pressure groups (unique to the U.S., thanks to Missouri v. Holland) and with no similar benefit from the jerry-rigged baseline. Such a bargain.

But I’ve just plowed through the official turgid recitation and stumbled upon the ultimate global warming loophole:

– permission to exceed the carry-forward rate in the event of extreme meteorological conditions (Effort Sharing Decision)
Member States may exceed their annual emissions ceilings by a maximum of 5 %.
However, in 2013 and in 2014, a Member State may ask the Commission for an increased
carry-forward rate if it experiences extreme meteorological conditions leading to substantially increased greenhouse gas emissions. The Commission will decide whether or not to grant this derogation on the basis of information provided by the Member State concerned.

English-to-English translation, in the context of our knowledge that cooling and warming, wet and dry, and any other meteorological condition is evidence of and caused by “global warming”:

EU states may cite “global warming” as an excuse for failing to comply with rules imposed to fight “global warming.”

You’ve really got to hand it to these folks. When they engineer a scam, they really do it.