The Observer, December 7, 2007
Volume XL, Issue 13
Global Scorning: Heat is on United States to participate in global pact to fight climate change
As Indonesians plant trees all over their country in an attempt to boost its green credentials, delegates from countries all over the world gather in Bali to discuss climate change. The Indonesians hope that their planting of trees will help make up for the intense deforestation that has occurred there in the past years, but the real climate change activist is the newest signatory of the Kyoto Protocol: Australia.
Australia agreed to ratify the Kyoto Protocol on Monday, the first day of the two-week negotiations on climate change in Bali, an Indonesian resort island. This decision gained Australia a standing ovation from the rest of the delegates at the meeting. Australia's participation in the protocol will help bring rich and poor countries together to agree on new regulations on climate change. Currently there are about 190 countries represented in Bali ,working together to concoct a new global pact to fight climate change (averting droughts, heat waves, and rising sea levels). Delegates are working on a new treaty that is meant to widen the current Kyoto Protocol. Currently the protocol binds 36 industrial countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 5 percent less than 1990 levels by 2008-2012.
Australia's participation in the protocol has placed a lot of merited pressure on the United States to hop on the climate change bandwagon. After all, the United States is the world's top greenhouse gas emitter, so it should be the most enthused and proactive about climate change. And yet the United States has avoided signing the Kyoto Protocol for many years now.
Just like the United States, Australia is a top emitter. According to Reuters' news website, Australia is the world's top coal exporter and among the world's highest-per-capita greenhouse gas polluters. Just like the United States, Australia refused to sign the protocol in the past. But this year, coming hand-in-hand with a new prime minister are new climate-change regulations. Fortunately, contrary to the United States, Australia is prepared to make crucial changes concerning its greenhouse gas emissions and is prepared to communicate this dedication to climate change to the world.
The United States has received heavy criticism for its lack of participation in the Kyoto Protocol. In the past, the United States has backed voluntary targets to fight climate change, but refuses to sign the protocol. However, Yvo de Boer, head of the United Nations Climate Secretariat, told delegates that rich nations had to agree to reduce emissions from burning fossil fuels in order to encourage the poor countries to start reducing their own emissions. It is pretty clear that without the rich countries' participation and enthusiasm over the Kyoto Protocol, clean growth will not occur in the poor countries. It is imperative that the United States, the richest country in the world as well as the highest emitter of greenhouse gases, becomes part of the Kyoto Protocol to indicate how crucial climate change is.
The climate change talks among delegates can go on for very long and are not always very civil. Arguments often erupt over who should curb their fossil fuel use and carbon emissions the most, as well as the difference in burden between rich and poor countries. This often interferes with creating solutions and concrete plans. The United States has often complained that it does not want to clean up the emissions of poor countries such as China. This aspect of the protocol has turned the United States off from signing it.
But the United States cannot avoid signing forever. Whether or not the United States wants to cover the burden of poor countries, the Kyoto Protocol is important for making big steps in climate change policy and cleaning up emissions. With Australia on the Kyoto bandwagon, the United States will appropriately start to feel a lot of pressure to participate.
Michelle Udem is a second-year economics and environmental studies major and is an avid supporter of alternative energy.
