Nation should advocate against climate change
Forget the fiscal cliff for a moment, because it’s time to focus on another cliff that’s even more dangerous and less easily fixed: the climate change cliff.
Starting Monday, around 200 countries will be meeting for the 2012 United Nations Climate Talks. The talks this year are urgent, as the first term of the Kyoto Protocol is set to expire.
Established by the member countries of the United Nation Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in 1997 and put into action in 2005, the protocol commits countries who have signed the treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5 percent of what they emitted in 1990 by the end of year 2012. For the most part, the Kyoto Protocol has achieved its goal and is one of the only treaties that has actually succeeded. However, unless country officials agree to renew it for a second term, greenhouse gas emissions will be uncurbed for the next decade.
The U.S. has said it will not be a part of the Kyoto Protocol due to the fact that the treaty holds developing countries to slightly different standards, standards that should change along with their economic development. As a huge emitter of carbon gas, the now-industrializing China, the U.S. argues, should be held to more stringent standards than it has been in the past, and until it is, the U.S. will have no part in the treaty. While new climate treaties are being drafted to address the changing situations of countries like China that have industrialized significantly in the past few years, these treaties are not forecasted to be completed until 2015, and will not take effect until five years after that.
While it’s understandable that the U.S. is upset about a treaty that doesn’t hold China accountable for pollution in the same way, it needs to keep in mind that rejecting the only treaty that has worked to curb emissions just because it has different standards for China doesn’t do anything to help the environment, which should be our priority in such matters. It’s true that China has changed a lot since 1997, but the U.S. still far outstrips China in terms of development. As a global leader, it’s our job to set an example and take responsibility for controlling our greenhouse gas emissions, regardless of what other countries do. Until the new and improved treaty is implemented in 2020, the U.S. should be doing everything we can for the time being. And if that means submitting ourselves to slightly stricter regulations than China for another five years for the sake of improving the environment, so be it.
If we truly are the powerful and capable world leaders like we think we are, then we need to recognize that we also have more responsibility. Rather than having another sibling spat with China, we should instead rise to the challenge and do our part in protecting the environment.