GLOBALENERGYDECISIONS

With the energy crisis being a hot topic, you bet there are a ton of voices out there offering a ton of solutions. And we’ll take a look at those in future articles.For now, here’s a reprint of what Greenpeace USA (an international organization that prioritizes global environmental campaigns) thinks must be done as a first step to reduce human contributions to the greenhouse effect:The bottom line is that the emissions of greenhouse gases must be reduced. We must develop industrial practices and means of transportation which are less dependent on fossil fuels, and ultimately, manage completely without them. Since the problem is global, the solutions must be international. The international community took a first step in 1992 when the Framework Convention on Climate Change was signed by 167 countries in Rio. The Framework Convention morally committed industrialized countries to stabilizing their emissions of CO₂ by the year 2000 at 1990 levels. However, since the 1990 levels of global CO₂ emissions enhanced the greenhouse effect, the 1992 agreement is obviously inadequate. Unfortunately, few, if any, of the industrialized countries will even meet this weak target. Consequently, the next step must be to make this commitment legally binding, and to strengthen it through a CO₂ Reduction Protocol aimed at meeting the objectives of the Convention. The minimum goal must be a 20 reduction in CO₂ emissions by 2005, based on 1990 levels. The industrialized countries have the lion’s share of the responsibility for creating the problem and for finding the solutions. They have developed their industrial base, and consequently, their higher standards of living, through the use of vast amounts of fossil fuels. This has resulted in high concentrations of CO₂ in the atmosphere. Furthermore, their per capita emissions of CO₂ continues to be tens of times larger than all of the developing countries. For example, the United States, the largest single emitter, annually pumps into the atmosphere approximately 20 tonnes of CO₂ per person. With less then 5 of the world’s population, the United States is responsible for 25 of global CO₂ emissions. In a comparison, the entire developing world, consisting of more than 100 countries and representing almost 80 of the world’s population, is responsible for approximately the same amount of CO₂ emissions.