Averting the disaster: with Kyoto virtually dead and buried, a new coalition of governments has recently begun to focus on technological solutions. But will they be enough?(Geographical dossier/climate change)

The Kyoto Protocol, which commits signatories to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions to five per cent below 1990 levels by 2012 is currently the only significant international attempt to combat global warming. However, climatologists have estimated that stabilising global temperatures will require emissions cuts equivalent to 30 Kyotos.

US president George W Bush has chosen not to sign the Kyoto Protocol, saying that it would wreck the US economy. In the summer, the USA joined Japan, Australia, China, India and South Korea in an agreement that will focus on technological solutions, rather than on attempts to reduce emissions. Together, these nations are responsible for producing a large proportion of the greenhouse gases entering our atmosphere. The USA, for example, pumped out 5.8 billion tonnes of C[O.sub.2] in 2003--around one quarter of global emissions.

So what are these putative technological …