Environmental Concerns: Global Warming - Research Paper Example

Environmental Concerns: Global Warming Environmental Concerns: Global Warming Introduction Global warming also known as greenhouse effect has beenone of the most serious environmental concerns of the past few years. According to many recent surveys, global warming has been selected as one of the top environmental concerns by the public (The World’s Water 2008-09, 2010). The main greenhouse gases are water vapour, CO2, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and halocarbons (IPCC, 2007a). The main contributor (4 to 36 percent) of greenhouse gas effect is CO2 which is mainly caused by manmade activities like burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. The main consequences of global warming will be natural disasters like floods, famines, reduction in agricultural output, glacier melting, emergence of new diseases, extinction of species etc (Sinn, 2007). The consequences of the global warming are universally recognized and hence serious efforts are made by all nations to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases especially CO2.The main participants in these efforts are governments and people. In this essay, the public policy actions regarding global warming, the participants in the policy actions, the evaluation of policy, political concerns etc are critically analyzed. 2. The Scope and Nature of the Public Policy Problem The excessive emission of greenhouse gases due to manmade activities can result in accumulation of heat in the earth’s atmosphere leading to a rise in global temperature. This phenomenon is called global warming (Cline, 1992). Among the greenhouse gases, all except methane are originated from manmade activities like fossil burning or electricity generation. Thus power plants are one of the main contributors of this phenomenon. The other main contributors of greenhouse gas emissions include deforestation, burning of gasoline in the engine of vehicles, use of fertilizers in agriculture, burning of organic matter, buildings that require lot of fuels etc. Due to the serious repercussions of the global warming problem concerning both developed and developing nations, it is widely recognized that an internationally integrated approach is needed to tackle this issue. The Kyoto Protocol based on the treaty on climate change in the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro,1992, called on both the developed and developing nations to formulate local initiatives to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases in all nations irrespective of the costs involved in these efforts(Hass et al, 1992). Both the governments and people can be the participants in the national and regional programmes in this regard. 3. The Evolution of Public Policy The historic treaty produced by the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 started the foundation for initiative in reducing the concentrations of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere (Hass et al, 1992). Based on the treaty it was promised that greenhouse gas emission will be reduced all over the world irrespective of the costs involved in these efforts to combat global warming. More than 186 nations were signed in that agreement. Based on the agreement many subsequent rounds of climate negotiations were promised to be held to reduce the emission levels in the levels existing in the 1990s. In 1997,the treaty’s implementing protocol, the Kyoto agreement, has delayed after the dilutions at negotiations in Bonn and Marrakesh(Biermann and Brohm,2005). However, the Kyoto Protocol, in its existing form, restricts only industrial countries except US for emitting greenhouse gases whereas developing countries like India have not taken any major responsibilities for reducing these emissions (Toman et al, 2003). In developing both the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and Kyoto Protocol, European Union has a major role (European Commission, 2008). 4.Evaluation of Policy, The Actors Involved Different initiatives were adopted by different nations in response to global warming. For example, UK adopted a domestic target to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide by 20 percent by 2010. A The other measures in this regard include introduction of a Climate Change Levy, the Renewables Obligation, with tradeable certificates (Renewables Obligation Certificates), R&D tax concessions .From the 2001 election onwards, the Performance and Innovation Unit of the Cabinet Office (PIU 2002), the Energy White Paper (DTI 2003), the Energy Review (DTI 2006) and the recent Stern Review (HM Treasury and Cabinet Office 2006) were published for reviewing policies. In all these reviews, it is assumed that the costs of mitigating climate change are small at around 1% (Helm, 2005). In US, climate change policy is considered as a development issue together with many other social issues. The basic objectives of the US climate policy change are to slow GHG gas emissions’ growth, major investments in science and technology and institutions and to promote international corporation (Biermann and Brohm, 2005).The US had rejected the Kyoto Protocol in 2001 February and after that, the US government was under severe pressure for taking some action in this regard. Hence, new plan after that commits an 18 percent of GDP reduction in intensity of greenhouse gas emission. However, this 18 percent of GDP is very small amount as shown by economic analyses and also lacks any element that would raise the price of carbon emission (Biermann and Brohm, 2005).It is claimed to reduce the cost effectiveness of the plan. Contrary to the developed nations, India joined with China to oppose the climate change mitigation commitments. They together opposed a discussion of climate change at the UN Security Council. They opposed the argument completely that climate change may have security implications. In addition to the governments, independent groups and the people also can be the participants in efforts to reduce global warming, directly or indirectly. Some of the efforts that can possibly reduce the global warming include planting more trees and developing wasteland, fuel substitution policies, reducing air pollution, promoting renewable sources of energy, reform measures for economy etc. Since the 1991 Earth Summit at Rio De Genero and the Kyoto Protocol in 2005, the Copenhagen conference has been the latest of the UN conferences to achieve an international consensus in dealing with climate change (ACCA, 2009). In 2012, the first commitment under Kyoto Protocol ends and in this context, the aim of the Copenhagen conference was to prepare a global climate change agreement from 2012(ACCA, 2009). Before the Copenhagen conference, five negotiating sessions were conducted by the Ad Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative Action under the UNFCCC (AWG-LCA) and the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP) (IISD, 2009). However, only little progress was made in the AWG-KP since developing nations wanted reduction of greenhouse gas emissions due to their historical responsibilities while the developed nations wanted reduction in this regard by developing nations also to a great extent. Consensus was not achieved under the AWG LCA also though progress was obtained in this regard. 5.The Intergovernmental Structure and Political Concerns Since the developing nations have per capita energy consumption and carbon dioxide emission, which is only one sixth of the developed nations, they are argued to be not the main contributors of climate change problems (Reddy and Asenza, 2009). At the same time, the developing nations are the most vulnerable ones to the climate change consequences with the limited availability of resources for adaptation to climate change (IPCC climate change, 2007). Contrary to the developed nations, China and India joined to oppose the climate change mitigation commitments. They together opposed a discussion of climate change at the UN Security Council. They opposed the argument completely that climate change may have security implications. This stand can be argued as legitimate on the one hand based on the burden sharing architecture of the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol which predicts about the growth of the share of global emissions originating in developing countries to meet their social and development needs’ (Toman et al, 2003). In these developing nations, many people are below the poverty line. Hence they are in the fight against poverty and to enhance economic growth and development is argued as the main priority for these nations (Reddy and Asenza, 2009). Based on the differences in the emission of CO2 between developed and developing nations, the UNFCCC has put forward the principle of common but differential responsibility in their policy instruments against climate change. Based on this principle, “developed countries are obliged to lead climate mitigation through national policies, make financial resources available to developing countries to meet the cost incurred in complying with the convention, and promote technology transfer to developing countries to implement the measures under the Convention” (Reddy and Asenza, 2009, p52). On the other hand, this stand taken can be argued as debatable since climate change will affect the poor nations the most. Moreover, in the developing nations, since majority of poor are in rural areas and are dependent on climate sensitive resources, climate change can affect these people badly (Kumar et al, 2001b). According to many reports , between 2004 and 2030 the CO2 emission by the developing nations will increase significantly so that they will be responsible for three quarters of the rise in global emissions and hence they will be ahead of the OECD nations in the emission by 2010 (UNFCCC,2007; Reddy and Asenza, 2009). Reports show that the biggest emitter of CO2 overtaking USA will be China and India will be the third largest emitter overtaking Russia between 2003 and 2030(IEA,2005).Thus, the climate change policy has been a challenge to the developing nations. One main feature of the Copenhagen conference was that since it happened along with the global financial crisis, it had to deal with the financial crisis and climate change at the same time (ACCA, 2009). The Copenhagen agreement is not considered as a perfect one though it is considered as an important way to go ahead. The agreement suggested a bottom up approach where there is no quantified emission reduction targets for developing nations or no compromise between US and China((IISD, 2009). Instead, it only suggested need for developed and developing nations to submit their commitments together (IISD, 2009). . The most significant feature of the Copenhagen accord however is the provision for short term and long term financing to developing nations by the developed nations through funds like the Copenhagen Green Climate Fund and a Technology Mechanism (IISD, 2009). 6. The Approaches to Policy Setting Different nations adopted different positions in the conference. While EU and US want the issue to be integrated in the broader framework of international economic agenda, UK ignored the problems like cooperation between nations, cost benefit analysis, attempt for a global agreement etc. Their policy framework was based on low mitigation costs, which was actually obtained to be high in the economic studies. The proposed reduction in GHG emission by US is argued to be very low. The developing nations wanted the developed nations to commit for significant reduction in the greenhouse gas emissions based on their historical responsibilities while they were not willing to sign to any binded commitments. Thus, all the countries discussed above adopted different stands with regard to climate policy change. Hence, the Copenhagen agreement is reported as far from perfect(Dvorsky,2010). 7. The Suggested Policy Direction That Is Supported By Research In response to the global warming, global economy seeks to implement this objective through voluntary GHG emission reduction targets. In order to obtain this target of reduction in the emission of Greenhouse gases, a developed country can look for consuming products and processes with high carbon intensities by importing the same from developing countries. As a result, the developing country has to increase its production of the product without having to worry about binding climate compliance (Helm, 2005). Due to the global impact of the global warming phenomenon unlike the other forms of environmental problems, irrespective of their originating place, international collaboration and agreement is needed to tackle the problem. 8. Conclusion Unlike other forms of environmental problems, one main feature of the global warming is that it spreads rapidly irrespective of where they are emitted. Hence this problem affects the global economy in a similar way. In this context, an internationally integrated approach is needed to tackle this problem. In the developing nations, many serious initiatives had been taken to to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. However, with regard to binded commitments, developing nations are still hesitant for any legal agreement even in the latest Copenhagen Conference based on the common but differential responsibilities. Since most people in developing nations are below poverty line, the developing nations demand the need for financing in relation to the investment in low carbon economy especially in the light of the recent financial crisis. The developed nations have to support the mechanisms in developing nations to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions through providing technologies and funding. References ACCA(2009): ACCA Position Paper: The UN Climate Change Conference 2009(COP 15), August . Biermann, F. and R. Brohm. (2005). 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