ABSTRACT
Convention on Climate Change already costs as much as the Montreal Protocol, is backed up by even less sound science, and may cost trillions of dollars if it one day manages to reduce, rather than just slow the acceleration of, carbon dioxide emissions. The Basle Convention on Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes could be as costly and targets poor countries by not allowing them to trade in the waste products in which they have a comparative advantage. (Second-hand clothes are waste under the strict rules of Basle.) All these conventions can be considered destined to remain for the foreseeable future. None serves a valuable purpose.
