First off Europe's Environment Chief is greek like i am, so i would gadly take him to war with me. Which i will do to battle gobal climate change. Starvos Dimas, Environment Cheif of Europe and greek politician, named and shamed countries like Austria, Australia, and Canada who failed to meet the standards they agreed to in the Kyoto Protocol. This is bad, but is it worse than not signing the Kyoto treaty at all? To me this is the biggest debate in the article. America did not agree to the Kyoto treaty. There is also a semi-noble reason for the U.S.'s action of not signing Kyoto which is that it would require things we knew we couldn't deliver on. On the otherhand is it better to at least try, with good intentions, to meet lower emission standards and fail like our sister country Canada.
Mr. Dimas said that he expected President Obama to make an improved offer to reduce emmission in the U.S. This seems interestingly polite, considering he "shamed" the countries who did sign the Kyoto climate treaty. So maybe it is better to not try at all then to fail and go against your word.
The article also went on to talk about setting a higher universal minimum price for carbon emissions. It said that the current price is too low to permit cleaner energy since changing to cleaner energy would be costlier than paying the fines. This sounds like a good way to give extra funding to governments without actually enforcing greener policies. Dimas however strongly disagrees with setting minimum prices for carbon emissions permits saying, "We do not discuss price ceilings or corridors."
Thats a very interesting point. Is it really better to try and fail or not try, knowing failure is eminent? In regards to the environment, I think its definitely better to try than give up without an effort. After all, its that mind set that has gotten us in the place to begin with. I probably would have done the exact opposite of Mr. Dimas- lightly scold Canada for not meeting the treaty but praise them for trying and scold the United States for making no substantial attempt to reduce carbon emissions.
ReplyDeleteAll nations aside, clean energy is key to the health of Earth. International cooperation is critical as well. Nations need to compromise on climate and emission standards. Also, universal agreement can be frustrating; I can understand Dima's frustration. All-in-all clean energy needs to be one of the world's top priorities.
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