This
week I read two articles and watched a video on the US-China climate pledge
that occurred about a month ago. The
first article, titled “Climate Action Pledged by US and China, but What About
India?” discussed some of the details of the pledge. It basically stated that the two biggest
carbon polluters in the world, China and the United States, plan on cutting
their carbon dioxide emissions in the next few decades. The United States said that by 2025, they
will reduce their greenhouse gas emissions under 2005 levels by 26% or more,
while China said it will peak its carbon dioxide emissions by 2029. This is a huge pledge, especially because
China and the United States currently produce about a third of the carbon
dioxide emitted per year globally. India,
unfortunately, did not say that they could make similar pledges because they
are focusing right now on providing electricity and better homes to their
rapidly growing population, although they would try to use renewable energy as
much as possible.
The second article I read was titled
“US-China Climate Deal: Can Obama Make Good on His Promise? (+video).” This article in my opinion was much more
important than the first. Lots of
politicians promise things. Does
President Obama have the power to get it done, and does he truly want to get it
done? This article said that President
Obama could reach this target using executive actions only, especially if he
used these executive actions to create new laws and regulations. These executive actions can be reversed with
lawsuits, but it would be legally and politically difficult. The Union of Concerned Scientists recommended
putting regulations on how much carbon dioxide coal power plants can emit and
increasing the standards on motor transport efficiency.
Overall, this is great
progress! Other countries may follow
suit and begin to battle climate change as well now that the United States and
China have decided to move forward. The
real question is, will the United States actually do anything to follow up on
this pledge? President Obama sounded
like he was planning on it in his speech on the executive action, stating that
climate change cannot wait for the partisan politics to sort things out. It sounds like he may be ready to make some
more executive actions, even if they are battled in court, in order to do
something about the problem. The second
question would be, what exactly will he do?
Although I like the recommendations from the Union of Concerned
Scientists, I hope that any executive action made helps to build a green
economy. The increased regulation on
coal power plant emissions will help the environment, but may raise the cost of
fuel. A tax on carbon emissions that
gives money back to the people will help the people pay for these raising coal
prices. Does an executive power allow
President Obama to create a tax, or just regulations? This is something that I will have to look
into. Regardless, my last question is
possibly the most important. Will
President Obama’s climate-related executive actions actually stand up and
work? Only time will tell.
Works Cited
Douglass, Elizabeth. "Climate Action Pledged by U.S and
China, but What About India?" Inside Climate News.org.
N.p., 13 Nov. 2014. Web. 20 Dec. 2014.
<http://insideclimatenews.org/carbon-copy/20141113/climate-action-pledged-us-and-china-what-about-india>.
Gass, Henry. "US-China Climate Deal: Can Obama Make Good
on His Promise? (+video)." The Christian Science Monitor.com. N.p., 12
Nov. 2014. Web. 20 Dec. 2014.
<http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2014/1112/US-China-climate-deal-Can-Obama-make-good-on-his-promise-video>.
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