The development milestone of the international social convention on carbon emission reduction
As early as the 1990s, the United Nations Committee on Climate Change published an article stating that global temperature rise is closely related to frequent human activities. 1990 was the time window for developed countries to complete the transfer of heavy-polluting industries.Carbon offset In the following years, multiple international conferences were held, and an international convention on carbon emission reduction was finally established. The most influential one is the 1998 Kyoto Protocol, which clarified a principle called "common" but differentiated responsibilities. This means that in order to prevent further deterioration of the earth's environment, all countries are obliged to reduce carbon emissions, but the weight each country bears is different.
Why treat them differently? Industrially developed countries have completed industrialization in recent years, and have produced a large amount of carbon emissions in the process. Developed countries will no longer build their own factories, but will shift demand to developing countries.emissions free If all countries meet common carbon emission standards at this time, it will undoubtedly be fatal for developers. So we must treat them differently. Developed countries need to cut emissions immediately, while developing countries can implement them later.
Rich countries should also contribute to helping developing countries reduce emissions. Later, in the spirit of improving the content of the agreement, various countries held an international conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, to divide the carbon emission reduction targets of each country.sustainable shipping However, the entire meeting did not go smoothly and there was no consensus on reducing carbon emissions. Several more meetings followed, but all ended in failure.
The scientific community’s attitude toward carbon emission reductions
There are two reasons for this result. One is that the scientific community believes that carbon emission reduction will not play a decisive role in global warming, and the other is that the implementation of carbon emission reduction will have a great impact on the interests of all countries. First, the scientific community discusses various views on the causes of global warming. The mainstream view is that the acceleration of global warming is caused by frequent human activities.
Another important part of scientists' research is that global warming is a cyclical change. During the dinosaur era, companies had no carbon emissions, but because the earth was still experiencing an ice age, the Cretaceous period was a period of extreme heat. Therefore, regarding this issue, some scientists believe that climate warming will occur within a certain period of time around the world. We should not just look at the continuous temperature changes in the past ten years, but teachers should lengthen the time line and observe the earth's temperature again. changes occur. This ideological point of view sounds logical, but the scientists who proposed to solve this educational point of view need to be from Russia, which makes everyone doubt the authenticity of the point of view.
Since Russia's finances rely heavily on oil exports, Russia's oil trade will take a serious hit if the world is to reduce its carbon emissions. While global warming is good for Russia, it is also close to the Arctic Circle.
Countries’ attitudes toward carbon emission reductions
Countries whose main income is energy, mainly Russia and Middle Eastern countries, do not agree with the implementation of international carbon emission reduction conventions, believing that this is an economic means for developed countries to curb developing countries. Once energy exports are reduced, it will not only affect the country's fiscal revenue, but also have a great impact on the country's military and society.
Countries led by Europe and Japan are the main promoters of the implementation of the international carbon emissions convention because they have transitioned from developing countries to developed countries and are not very dependent on national industry, and their emission reduction technologies are very developed. , once carbon emission reduction is implemented, not only will it not have any impact on the domestic industry, but it will also restrict the development of other countries' industries, thus virtually improving the international status and strength of one's own country.
Island nations, led by the Maldives, are eager to reduce carbon emissions to slow greenhouse gas emissions and prevent them from being swamped by rising sea levels.
In countries with backward industrial development, most African countries have very little industrial carbon emissions, and the carbon emission cap quotas allocated to these countries every year cannot be used up at all, so they do not care whether this international convention is implemented.
The United States is very opposed to the carbon emission reduction convention because the United States is the world's largest country and its per capita carbon emissions are much higher than our country. Moreover, the United States does not have corresponding national policies to enable American citizens to be low-carbon and environmentally friendly. Although the United States signed the Kyoto Protocol, it has never implemented carbon emission reductions in accordance with the regulations. For the United States, the treaty binds countries weaker than itself, and it is not bound by the treaty.
Although carbon emissions are an environmentally friendly task, in fact it is essentially a game of interests between major countries.
By:Icey