LONDON -- People who arrive at parties that are in full swing, and then ask who is paying and how much the party costs, are usually regarded as party poopers who should either keep their views to themselves or withdraw.
At the moment the global warming party is at its height and it is considered very negative indeed -- almost bad manners -- to question the colossal costs of fulfilling the Kyoto Protocol targets for reducing carbon-dioxide emissions, or to ask whether the benefits justify the outlays.
Yet a recent report from a very high-powered committee in the British House of Lords the other day did just that.