Today 155 countries are meeting in New York to sign the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. The goal of these countries is to limit the rise of the Earth's temperatures by 2 degrees Celsius. These countries will cut 55% of greenhouse gas emissions in order to meet this goal.
Here is a list of all the countries signing the agreement:
http://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2016/04/parisagreementsingatures/
Here is a link to the article discussing the conference:
http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/record-number-of-countries-to-sign-paris-agreement-of-climate-change-on-earth-day/56844796
What economic affects will this have on the United States as well as the world? What do you think the Koch brothers think about this agreement and what impact will it have on their business?
I feel that in order to get the U.S. to take action and fully participate, the government would have to be far more progressive. Both Houses of Congress are currently controlled by Republicans and many disapprove of environmental regulations and disagree with climate change. As we've read in "Dark Money" the Koch brothers have been directly responsible and facilitated this ideological shift in our politics. Even though Obama went to the Paris Conference last year, many Republican front runners said they wouldn't have gone and deemed the meeting as unfair or ridiculous. We'll have to see how the U.S. acts against climate change come November.
ReplyDeleteLike Jay said, the U.S. government should tighten its environmental policies to fully commit to the agreement. Theoretically, tighter policies would decrease the level of CO2 emission, which then would reduce the greenhouse effect. However, it would cost a lot to companies or firms that emit CO2. These companies won't accept tighter policies and be responsible for costs. They would keep lobbying congressmen to ease environmental policies.
ReplyDeleteI don't think there will be dramatic impacts on economies. However, many people will have this day as a chance to rethink about their consuming patterns, and gradually change their habits to eco-friendly ones. This slow change might be observed in upcoming few decades. On the other side, the Koch family would not really care about what the day is. At least, they will make some donations to environment related NPO, and say that they also pay attention to the environment.
ReplyDeleteI feel that the Koch's and other wealthy managers of fossil fuel corporations would adamantly oppose any regulation of CO2 emissions. Furthermore, any meaningful shift to a clean energy initiative would hurt the aforementioned fossil fuel organizations. Although this change is necessary and important, there will be a lot of backlash from the owners of fossil fuel companies.
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