United States

Red White & Green: Obama Intends to Reduce Green House Gasses

Paul Kadzielski

 

       In a letter written to the United Nations climate officials, the United States of America has pledged to associate itself with the goals of the Copenhagen Climate Accords. The Copenhagen Accords was a meeting held in 2009 by governments from around the world in Denmark to create a set of goals to reduce the effects of climate change.  By pledging to "associate” itself with the accords (def: when a country states that it wants to make a law to enforce their end of the agreement) President Obama has stated that he intends to create a law to change government regulations to help meet the Copenhagen Accord's goal of reducing green house gas emissions (def: gasses that thicken the atmosphere and trap heat from the sun, heating up the planet causing irregular weather patterns) globally.  The next step in the process is for the United States to pass a bill that would enforce a reduction in green house emissions.

       Obama's goal is to cut total emissions from the United States to the same levels they were in 1990 by the year 2020. This amounts to a 17% reduction from the 2005 US levels.  In their statement to the United Nations, the Obama administration outlined their reasons for pledging association including: a stronger economy (See bullet point 4), more environmental protection, and enhanced national security (See bullet point 1). Critics of the statement say that any legislation causing business's to change to accommodate any more strict regulations on climate change will force employers to spend more while producing less, hurting the already damaged American and global economy.

• On February 1^st, the Department of Defense released a statement saying, amongst other things, "climate change alone does not cause conflict, it may act as an accelerant of instability or conflict, placing a burden to respond on civilian institutions and militaries around the world."
  
• The Copenhagen Accords are the newest addition to the set of global climate agreements.  Historically, the United States has not signed climate treaties for a variety of economic and political reasons.
•  Representatives from 194 countries, every country on the planet, attended the Copenhagen accords including president Obama.
• Argument for: New legislation may create new jobs in clean energy or energy efficient sectors in America such as retrofitting old industries to meet the new regulations.
  
•  Argument against: New legislation may slow job growth by imposing more regulations of businesses forcing them to cut costs to have enough money to spend on making changes to comply with new regulations.