Some people believe that climate change is not as bad as it looks and that the consequences will take time to actually start affecting. According to economist.com, climate change will impact developing countries the most.
After the Kyoto protocol ended in 2012, countries around the globe fear for the future of their nations. According to bbc.com, China faces a big threat with climate change since its temperatures are higher than the global average, which is harming the crop yields.
“The ending of the Kyoto protocol won’t be an issue, all the measures to reduce greenhouse gasses to honor the protocol are already in place so it would be too much hassle to undo them now,” freshman Tyler Hillier said.
U.S. and China produce 45 percent of global emissions. The countries are working together to reduce the greenhouse levels by 2020 according to bbc.com
According to businessweek.com, most of developing countries want too much economic aid in order to maintain lower carbon emission and avoid an increase of 2 degrees Celsius. The countries asked for around $140 billion and $675 billion in 2014. Also, these countries believe that developed countries are responsible of one third of carbon emission since years ago so to them it is not fair that they should reduce their CO2 emissions.
“I think developing countries have the right to industrialize and grow without facing condemnation from other countries. These countries need to grow and who are we to hinder that growth when we became developed the same way?” Hillier said.
These developing countries also believe that their growth should not be stopped because of climate change and developed countries can grow without polluting according to businessweek.com. This means preserving developed nations’ nature, but helping the poor countries although it is not implemented yet. A suggestion that will help global environment but also economic growth is to subsidize fuel like Iran did in 2010.
“I think developed countries are the ones who should reduce carbon emissions significantly, not developing ones,” sophomore Michael Ntagungria said.
Some countries have taken steps towards a more renewable energy source. Costa Rica has used 100 percent renewable energy for 75 days in a row according to on.natgeo.com (at the time of the publication).
But the pressure is also placed on rich countries to develop technology that will create renewable power and provide subsidies of this technology to the poor countries according to businessweek.com. Until now this aspect of developing and subsidizing these countries have failed because richer countries are worried that the money will not be used in a proper way. According to bussinessweek.com poor countries are sacrificing too much already to ask for tomorrow’s safety.
At the time when Kyoto protocol was planned it was thought that developed countries were the ones who had to reduce carbon emission, but decades later it showed that developing countries produce more carbon emission that the richer countries.
Photo by Bethany Schram
