Written by Ann Bailey
This year, representatives from XXX nations will gather in Copenhagen in December to try and reach a binding agreement to address climate change.
At least for the time being, you can pretty much bank on December 7 being a cold day in Copenhagen, where the average temperature for the past 20-odd years has been 2º C (36º F) on that date. This year, though, delegates from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe will gather there to try to hammer out an agreement to keep it that way. That’s the day the gavel comes down to open the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 15), which will run through December 18.
International meetings in Bonn, Bangkok and Barcelona earlier this year laid the groundwork for proposals to be presented at COP 15. If all goes according to plan, COP 15 will end with a treaty signed by close to 200 countries that will replace the Kyoto Protocol, adopted in Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997.
Improving on Kyoto
Twelve years ago, the Kyoto Protocol set legally binding targets for countries to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, and ultimately, 148 nations ratified the Protocol by February 2005, which put the standards into effect. Notably absent among the ratifying countries was the United States, ironically among the largest producers of greenhouse gases. The U.S. balked, based on objections to the exemption granted China (today the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide), and fears that compliance with emission limits would prove detrimental to the U.S. economy.
Flash forward more than a decade, however, and the pressure is now on the U.S. to play ecological ball this time around. Worldwide scientific experts almost universally agree that controlling greenhouse gases is crucial to slowing, or even halting, climate change. These gases, which include carbon dioxide, methane and ozone, gather in Earth’s atmosphere and prevent heat from escaping back into space, acting like the glass in a greenhouse. The result is a gradual warming of the earth’s climate.
According to scientists, even relatively small increases in the temperature of the earth can produce dramatic changes—the melting of glaciers and polar ice resulting in rising sea levels, increased desertification, a significant reduction in the availability of fresh water, and increasingly extreme weather. Many believe we may already be seeing the effects of global warming on the evening news—raging wildfires in Greece, extreme drought in the East Africa, super typhoons in Japan and devastating floods in the Philippines.
The burning of fossil fuels—oil, coal and natural gas—in combustion engines, factories and electric plants, is the largest contributor to greenhouse gases. Heavily industrialized and rapidly developing nations, including the United States, the European Union, China, Japan, Russia, Canada and India are responsible for more than 70 percent of the most abundant greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide.
Getting to Yes on Greenhouse Gasses
The goal for COP 15, according to UN Climate Chief Yvo de Boer, is a treaty that commits industrialized countries to significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Commitments from rapidly developing countries, such as China, India, Indonesia and Brazil, to limiting the growth of their emissions are also critical. So that poorer nations don’t suffer economically by limiting their emissions, wealthy industrialized nations would be required to assist them in developing clean technologies.
The COP15’s call for a worldwide commitment is urgent, as many believe we have little time left to halt what are potentially disastrous climate changes: A recent expedition of British explorers to the Arctic found that ice at the top of the world is rapidly thinning. The team predicts that within a decade, the North Pole will be ice-free during the summer, according to a BBC report. If that happens, it may just be the tipping point, from which there is no return.
Pressure Building for U.S. Involvement
Environmental groups in the U.S. are calling on Congress to pass a strong bill tackling climate change before the Copenhagen conference convenes, to show that this time, the U.S. is determined to be part of the solution. It has long been part of the problem. With only 5 percent of the world’s population, the U.S. produces 25 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases, says the
Sierra Club.
In support,
the Alliance for Climate Protection, chaired by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, is sponsoring an online petition urging President Obama to lead Congress on climate change and pass a comprehensive bill that limits emissions and promotes clean energy technology. You can find the petition
here.
More information on climate change actions and issues, both national and international, can be found at the
Pew Center on Global Climate Change website.
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