United States Is Giving a Cold Shoulder Regarding Climate Talks
Why is it that just when everyone is getting along so nicely, someone has to step up and become the problem child? Seems this is the posture that the United States wants to adopt with regard to the negotiations pertaining to ways to reduce emissions. One day all the countries are advancing toward a common goal and then wham! out of nowhere, the United States turns a cold shoulder and stamps its feet saying it will not engage in further talks unless the less developed countries, e.g. India, etc. assure that they will work toward equal measures to reduce emissions.
All’s fair in love and war, and the United States insisted that everyone should be on the same page and work in concert to toward the same emission obligations, regardless of developing or under-developed country status. Not to be bullied, India as a whole stood firm in its opposition to the United States’ demands and apparently called their bluff, thereby making the American negotiators backpedal.
The United States’ bullish attitude seems to have caught off-guard inasmuch as President Obama, et al. have been regularly engaged in conversations with these developing countries which have, in turn, met with positive results; including some voluntary reduction plans. Apparently, developed countries produce more carbon emission gases than the developing countries and are better off financially as well as with their technology to create more aggressive emission reducing measures.
It has long been the consensus of the United Nations Climate Change convention that the majority reduction in emissions should be a role played by the already developed countries somewhere between 25% and 40%. Rajendra Pachauri, Chairman of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change believes that developing countries can easily keep strides with the developed countries in the effort to reduce global carbon emissions. One country, India, however, states that this call for mandatory reduction in emissions will have a negative impact on India’s ability to economically continue its struggle to end poverty. India’s assertive drive against mandatory measures would complicate any effort to streamline reduction in emissions, thereby actually causing an increase.
The debate behind the mandatory or non-mandatory reduction in carbon emissions measures is primarily due to the fact that not all countries have the same carbon footprint. Most developing countries have smaller footprints while the developed countries have larger footprints. Manipulating developing countries into complying with the aggressive actions of the larger developed countries would severely debilitate the endeavors currently in place with respect to standards of living.
Many smaller developing countries, e.g. South Africa and China, have made public their voluntary plan of action to reduce emissions in those areas causing the most pollution. This voluntary plan includes, among other things, protecting the forests. China has even gone so far as to announce working toward more renewable energy and “going green”, with a projected renewable energy source by 2020 to approximately 15%.
Following suite, India stated that it will work on creating laws in an effort to reduce carbon emissions from its highest pollution contributors and even voluntarily submitting an annual report of its findings to the United Nations.
Just because the United States is one of the big guns and is ahead of the developing countries in efforts to reduce carbon emissions, does not mean that it can expect everyone to get on the same page at the same time. Developing countries, such as India and China, need to continue to work toward the common goal but at a much slower pace so as to not cause harm to its people. The United States needs to step back and applaud the efforts of these lesser developed countries. They may be several years in the making but eventually they will get closer in proximity to the goals of carbon emission reduction. While not quite up to the United States’ standards, they are currently making voluntary cuts in emissions here and there and are trying to better their tracking and reporting efforts.
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