So, the Pot Says To the Kettle

"Guess what, bub? You're black."

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders have backed a goal for ambitious cuts in greenhouse gases by 2020 but dropped a longer-term target for 2050, despite support from environment ministers earlier this month.

The 25 ministers agreed that developed nations should pursue cuts of heat-trapping gases of 15-30 percent by 2020 and 60-80 percent by 2050 compared with levels set in the Kyoto Protocol, which uses 1990 as a base in most cases.

But EU heads of state and government omitted the 2050 goal from an agreed statement after a two-day summit in Brussels, the text showed, while keeping the 2020 target.

They said longer-term targets should be considered "in the spirit" of the ministers' decision. "These reduction ranges will have to be viewed in the light of future work on how the objective can be achieved, including the cost-benefit aspect."

Environmentalists said Germany and Austria, traditionally supportive of green causes, had blocked the long-term goal.

"It's always Germany and Austria who are the stronger allies of progressive climate action and then all of a sudden their coal industry has rebelled and they're blocking the rest of the EU," said Greenpeace climate expert Mahi Sideridou.{...}

{my emphasis}

So, it's perfectly all right to blather on about how eeeeevil the U.S. is for not ratifying Kyoto, but when it comes right down to it, Germany and Austria don't want to follow through, either. Because it would hurt their economies.

Short form of all this: Good ol' Gerhard Schroeder is neck-deep in trouble.