united states and climate change

Both nations must work together to strengthen global climate policies. The blame should not be only on the United States, such as what its current climate change agenda is. However, any stakeholder can come forward to negotiate and attempt to cope with the world’s shifting climatic conditions. However, the United States will play a critical part in mitigating the causes of climate change. The United States must discuss this issue with other countries and enact a strategy to ensure its compliance. The toxicity of the atmosphere should be considered. The policy should consider the unchecked emission of harmful gases into the atmosphere by the United States and other countries of the world, and also the United States should direct such implementation.

The United States is very powerful and can play a very crucial role towards the formulation and implementation of policies in favour of the global climate changes. But, the President of the United States is not sure for participating in Paris Climate Pact. Such attitude is due to huge and continuous energy consumption by the United States as compared to other nations. According to President Trump, such participation would affect the smooth business stratagems of the United States. “[The agreement] is bad for U.S. business [and allows] foreign bureaucrats control over how much energy we use” (Trump). Mr. Trump prefers business boom at the cost of the health of the people of the United States. Health and business should be kept separate and the health of the people should be given the preference. Also, the present concerns of the climate change are huge, and something is needed to be done now or it would be too late.

The Paris Agreement took the climatic changes into consideration and was very effective, reaching at COP21. It started a trend in December 2015 to keep fighting the climatic changes. It is important to mention that the implementation of Paris Agreement is not easy and there are still some things to be addressed and assessed to make space for its proper implementation. Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) should be revisited by the developing nations to facilitate the already defined visions of the Paris agreement. Developing countries need a lot of support, political, economic and technological support, from developed nation including the United States (Bell, 2004).

Many conferences are being organised by industry, academia, and other institutions to facilitate the vision of the Paris agreement to tackle the global climate changes. For instance, some institutions including Konrad Adenauer Foundation , Climate strategies, the Uongozi Institute, and Stanley Foundation organised ‘the 3rd Global Climate Policy Conference (GCPC)’ with a subtitle depicting ‘Implementing the Paris Agreement’, held in Dares Salaam, Tanzania. Such steps do have a vital importance towards the formulation and implementation of the policies. The United States should also be keen towards the changing climatic conditions of the world that do affect the health of millions of people from around the world. Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007 of the United States was a very good step towards minimising the emission of the harmful pollutants into the atmosphere. Such steps have just to give a global recommendation and implementation for safer atmosphere all over the world.

One of the fascinating things about the ‘Paris Agreement’ that it took the world nations into consideration to check their contribution, Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), of harmful substances into the environment. Most developed countries including the United States contribute huge amounts of the gases including carbon dioxide (CO2) and Chloro-fluoro carbons (CFC’s) into the atmosphere that results in increase in the temperature and other associated consequences. Somehow it would also be a moral obligation of the United States towards other nations especially the developing countries with poorer health facilities (Chen, 2008). The participation in the Paris Climate Pact is inclusive to all the countries of the world for a better future of our planet – to minimise deaths and serious health issues, and to check consequences of the climatic changes.

Global climate change is a global problem and it has to be addressed by the global stakeholders. The United States, being a bigger player in world politics and economics, would be able to effectively influence the final policy like that of the Paris Agreement. The enhancement and implementation of the policies or the formulation of newer policies is the need of the hour. The mounting emission of harmful and poisonous substances into the all spheres of the world is changing its topology. The biological aspects are being intervened by such materials and do have a very bad effect on the world biological systems including Homo sapiens. Such drastic changes would cause disappearance of certain endangered species from the surface of the earth which is on the brink of extinction. Increasing water levels, changing seasonal timings, harsh weathers, uneven floods, submerging low-lying areas, serious health issues among humans and animals, smog, and frequent acid rain etc. are some of the immediate results of the global climate change. Such changes do negatively influence the ecological balance with greater impact on the physical, geographical, and biological aspects of the world. Human beings, being the most sophisticated among other forms of life, have this innate responsibility to check the unwanted emissions that disrupts the ecological balance. Also, humans are the lone cause for global pollution that results in drastic climate changes. Whether it is the ‘Paris agreement’ or any other platform to address the global climate changes, the United States need to participate in the Paris Climate Pact. It won’t be wrong to mention here that ‘With great power comes great responsibility’ in context to the United States.

References

Bell, Michelle L.; Michelle L. Bell; Devra L. Davis; Tony F. (2004). “A Retrospective Assessment of Mortality from the London Smog Episode of 1952: The Role of Influenza and Pollution”. Environ Health Perspect. 112 (1): 6–8. 

Chen, H; Goldberg, MS; Villeneuve, PJ. (2008). “A systematic review of the relation between long-term exposure to ambient air pollution and chronic diseases.”. Reviews on environmental health. 23 (4): 243–97.

Harvey, Fiona (3 November 2016). “World on track for 3 °C of warming under current global climate pledges, warns UN”. The Guardian. Retrieved 08 April 2017.

 “Total greenhouse gas emissions (kt of CO2 equivalent)”. World Bank. Retrieved 08 April 2017.