Today I decided to write about a climate change meeting coming up in just a few short weeks in Europe. I make my living as a realtor from Toronto, but that doesn’t mean that global issues do not concern me. Climate and its development is one of them.
The United Nations Climate Change Conference will take place in the Denmark capital during the beginning of December. People showing up at the conference are expecting to reach an understanding on lessening the intensity of climate change from 2012. The thoughts on climate change differ greatly so not everyone is starting this from the same angle. The movement is anything but united.
Major changes in climate change mitigation were anticipated when Barack Obama became president. What individuals are wanting to be told is how can we move this issue forward. The Kyoto protocol, understood to be a springboard for conferences of this kind, is less and less admired, even by environmentalists themselves.
The reducing of emission rates agreed to back in 1997 (and never reached) are about to be reevaluated. Built on GHG emission rates of 2005, individuals around the US president are pushing for a further 20% shrinkage by 2020. While the public call for this reduction they fail to remember that Kyoto didn’t work and that called for a 5% reduction on the 1990 levels. The protocols of Kyoto are being relaxed further even though there is a very lax attitude to keeping the the schedule in the first place.
This problem is tied to another critical area of discord. Countries in the South such as Brazil, South Africa and India who are known to be massive polluters are unlikely to be worried by any environmental action taken, while countries in the North could see a massive impact on their economy. The South collectively believes it’s in the right, because the North owes them a lot – southern countries are much more affected by climate change than those in the North. Northern countries admit that developing countries may need to produce higher emissions to literally fuel their growth (although some activists see such aggressive ‘slash-and-burn’ development as a dead end route anyway), but with the economic troubles and China’s emergence as a world power, countries like India and Brazil are less inclined to make any sacrifices.
The campaign for anti-climate change has another big problem in relation to the emissions trade. Putting in place market rules that offset any negative economic repercussions of restrictions is also debatable according to opponents, who see this as an outlet for the black market trade. What they are longing to see and calling for is the main of the power and control to be handed to local communities, which should hopefully stop any climatic disasters.
Important decisions may be agreed at Copenhagen, but it’s almost sure they won’t be revolutionary. Having said all that, probably, the most important thing to come out of it all is the activists are now getting together to try and make some changes. The public is going to Copenhagen and expressing their interest in our world, that’s the right cure!
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