ipl-logo

The Pros And Cons Of The United States Joining The Kyoto Protocol

447 Words2 Pages

With the United States joining the Kyoto Protocol in the late 1990s, many viewed this as the perfect opportunity to for the U.S. to join the global effort in mitigating climate change. However, when President George W. Bush took office, many felt that the protocol was weak and ineffective for a few different reasons. First, developing countries were excluded from the Kyoto Protocol. From the point of view of developing countries, the United States had a double standard to them. Hence, the U.S. wanted to take part in the global effort to mitigate climate change, yet at the same time they were one of the top greenhouse gas emitters in the world. With the U.S. being one of the world’s wealthiest nations, we have built fortunes and long term economic stability on …show more content…

How did we expect developing countries to join the Kyoto Protocol, when we ourselves were emitting around ten times as much greenhouse gas emissions? Being one of the top polluters in the world means that the U.S. should take responsibility for their GHG. Without the U.S. taking full responsibility, developing countries were even less motivated to join the protocol. Considering this, the only possible way to convince developing countries to join the regime would be by offering very strong incentives. On another note, the protocol was weak since there was a link of linkages between the scientific base and policy. Without any certainty regarding climate change itself and how scientifically the Kyoto targets were settled, is a point of controversy. One would assume that a policy regarding climate change would be based off of scientific evidence and data. This however wasn’t the case with the Kyoto Protocol. The emissions target in the protocol were being based off of political negotiations, rather than science. With the targets having no relation to scientific information, long term objectives will be hard to

Show More
Related
488 Words | 2 Pages

The treaty would be a legally binding contract that requires each signing nation to allocate no less than 2 percent of their nation’s GDP to develop programs for the investigation, discovery, and elimination of changes to the climate. Each nation could develop substantial programs with their 2 percent allocations. Such an allocation for the US should hopefully force legislators to develop programs to reduce climate change. If I were able to move beyond this action, I would pass a law making it illegal to pollute the

Read More
349 Words | 2 Pages

The Agreement will not become binding on its member states until 55 parties who produce over 55% of the world 's greenhouse gas have ratified the

Read More
585 Words | 3 Pages

Australia’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions represents a substantial increase in its commitment to curb climate change. Australia has engaged in a series of multilateral, plurilateral and regional climate change with key countries. It also holds continuous climate change discussions at the ministerial level with crucial economic and trade partners. Australia also collaborates with other countries to share knowledge and information, as well as come up with best practice approaches to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Climate change is a global problem that results from human-caused emissions of greenhouse gases that cause the atmosphere to warm at an extraordinary rate.

Read More
1133 Words | 5 Pages

Looking at the international sphere, there have been many conferences, conventions and treaties signed that have had seemingly little effect. The Kyoto Protocol, for example, was not ratified by the United States, because President Bush argued that it was unfair to exclude China and India, the countries with the largest populations. The influence that American opinion has on Canadian environmental policy is also worth looking into. During the recent election campaign, Justin Trudeau and his Liberal party made many promises for new environmental policies, and have won with a majority government. Already, prime minister-designate Trudeau has committed to attending the United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Paris this November.

Read More
1072 Words | 5 Pages

As Ronald Reagan once said, “There can be no security anywhere in the free world if there is no fiscal and economic stability within the United States.” This quote highlights the importance of economic stability in shaping the course of American history. Events such as the Civil War, the New Deal, and the creation of the Federal Reserve were all crucial in establishing and maintaining economic stability in the United States. These events have had a profound impact on the country’s economic landscape and continue to shape its future.

Read More
976 Words | 4 Pages

Following World War I, there was social discourse in the United States. Although the United States delayed entering the war, the nation still felt the financial burden of war. This led to public dissatisfaction with the United States government, which created a sense of mistrust between the American people and their government . Around the same time in the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin and his administration were seeking to push the idea of a communist regime around the world. The goal of communism was to allow the working people of the world to rise up against oppressive governments.

Read More
516 Words | 3 Pages

After the Great Depression, the Bretton Woods pact was not the only innovation, in fact in the US in 1933 had been approved the new legislation for banking, the Glass-Steagall act: the division between the commercial and investment banks. In order to alleviate the problem born in 1929 after the Stock Market Crash there were two acts entering into force. The first one, in 1932, made the Federal Reserve more powerful in control of the money supply. The second wanted to make safer the banking system. In fact after this date banks cannot be commercial and investment banks at the same time, also the insurance services cannot be supply by banks.

Read More
955 Words | 4 Pages

They also point out that global warming consensus is not based on science, but for the political purpose. From my perspective, the severity of climate change indeed can affect the decisions of policy-makers, such as green policy and governance. But it does not mean that people can just ignore the consequences of the enormous emission of greenhouse gases in the past few decades. First of all, countries in Latin America and Africa tend to concern more about climate change issue than other regions. I have noticed that the majority of climate change skeptics mentioned in the documentary were from U.S..

Read More
317 Words | 2 Pages

Nowadays, USA is a strongest and most powerful country in world economies. Moreover, America is able to control the economy in the world through their economic strengths. If we use money to determine the wealthy of one country, USA is always on the top of the world. According to the numbers were reckoned up, The International Monetary Fund (IMF) announced that America is the most moneyed country ( Nuoc nao giau nhat the gioi 2015, 2015.). Everything always has a good side and bad side, as well as, the riches in America.

Read More
1700 Words | 7 Pages

The Paris Agreement was drafted and discussed amongst representatives from 197 countries apart of the United Nations, in a joint effort to halt the future and current risks imposed by rising global temperatures. Since November of 2016, 175 countries have ratified and adopted measures to reduce rising emission rates. The United States Environmental Protection Agency concludes that the primary source for climate change is due to the increase in emissions of greenhouse gases. In 2015, 179 sovereign nations gathered in Paris, France to officially discuss the measures that would be imposed by the nations in agreeance, to cut greenhouse gas emission. The European Union has some of the toughest policies and standards aimed at protecting and sustaining the

Read More
147 Words | 1 Pages

Pros no.1: The problem of climate change is orders of magnitude more complex and difficult than the problem of ozone depletion it is not necessary to embrace the skeptical position about uncertainty in climate science to suggest that the same kind of policy dynamic found in the problem of the ozone layers the scientist evidence was straight wards the time scale was relatively short and most importantly there were scale substitutes for CFCs available at a reasonable cost .By contrast the climate science is much more complex and even if the complexities wash out ,the focus on near term reductions in greenhouse gas emissions is unlike the near term reduction in CFCs under the Montreal protocol for a blindingly simple reason there are no economically

Read More
838 Words | 4 Pages

But since America has been the driving force of the world economy since the 1950’s, I think it’s important to focus on the health of the American economy to demonstrate this point of view. We have a huge deficit in America, that is no secret. America has borrowed more than 18 trillion dollars just to keep itself going, and a lot of that is owed to China, who are not exactly our friend. The national debt owed per person as of today is over $56,000.

Read More
1266 Words | 6 Pages

Professor Jack Hall, a paleoclimatologist, discovered drastic climate changes which he believed would affect the world population. He, therefore, voiced out about the problem during a press conference with the world’s leaders in New Delhi. Unfortunately, the American vice president, Raymond Becker, did not heed his advice until matters were out of control. "Our economy is every bit as fragile as the environment (Strieber, 2004)," the vice president says, dismissing Jack 's sensational claims. Due to the advancement of technology in the United States, there were several greenhouse gases responsible for global warming, and the citizens of United States contributed to the emission of these gases in many ways.

Read More
946 Words | 4 Pages

Climate change has been a problem in the world since the industrial revolution and has been denied by major corporations and the government for centuries. This is because most non-renewable resources are major industries (i.e. oil, electricity, water, etc.) and the world 's economy profits from these resources. The bulk of corporations prioritize their wealth over the condition of the Earth beneath them. Economic growth is important for the people, yes; it is how we develop as a society, but at what cost? The Earth takes the brunt of society 's success, and denying the inevitable will not stop it from occurring.

Read More
1012 Words | 5 Pages

Climate Change is something that we have caused because of our choices to burn fossil fuels, at some point we have to face the problems that we have created. The consequences of Climate Change are horrific and Climate Change could end our existence as a species, most people do take action against Climate Change except, The Government of the United States of America, refuses to accept the serious dangers of climate change and continues releasing propaganda on Climate Change, claiming its effects are minimal and that we are not causing it. Peculiar how almost every other government in the world thinks otherwise. The reasons we are heading in the wrong direction is because the actions of humans are causing Climate Change, and almost all scientists agree on this matter. Another reason is the that the government isn’t trustworthy in what they say about Climate Change, meaning what they say about Climate Change is wrong, and we should change our policy on Climate Change.

Read More

More about The Pros And Cons Of The United States Joining The Kyoto Protocol

Related Topics

Open Document