Climate Change Conference

Our climate change conference pointed to several issues that arise during large negotiations that are almost impossible to get around. First of all, each country has a different perspective on each climate issue, and some are unable to contribute anything due to instability or lack of funding. Another issue is that when you seek total agreement, each country wants to come out even or at an advantage which is impossible due to the issues complexity. The proposal for 3/4ths of developed and developing countries is better, but it still allows for a few major countries to vote no and walk out. A comprehensive global climate change agreement means very little if huge CO2 producers like the US or China fail to agree to any terms and walk out. If votes were scaled based on current or future carbon emissions with larger polluters getting more of a vote than a majority without unanimity could work. This however would not address the concerns of poorer countries who would feel the damages of climate change sooner and on a greater scale than rich countries. The world must come to some agreement on cutting carbon emissions to combat global warming, and the longer we wait the more difficult it will be to cut back in time. A global cap and trade system would seem to work, as long as there were severe damages to any country that did not join on or decided to leave. If a country did not want to be part of this system, it would have to have a global tariff on the goods it sold or all other countries would have unfair competition that might make them consider leaving. Also, in order to cut CO2 emissions enough to avoid levels where our climate would become unpredictable, developed countries must be nearly carbon free by around 2050. This necessitates huge advances in the technology and deployment of carbon free energy sources that can run 24/7. Some money from the cap and trade system, possibly an overall global tax on the standard allotted CO2 levels for developed countries, should be used for investment and research into green, carbon free energy in developed countries so they are at an economic advantage to switch to clean energy. Making clean energy cheaper and CO2 emissions more expensive is the best way to combat this issue, as it is difficult to monitor emissions and each country has to originally agree and continue to be a part of any agreement if it is going to be successful.