Global Warming And Other Climate Changes example essay topic

A perfect example of Canadian foreign policy can be the discussion on the ratification of Kyoto Protocol. The Kyoto agreement has the potential to affect every sector of society because most anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions, particularly CO 2, come from energy production and use. It will be necessary to have full cooperation of all countries, both developed and developing, to fulfill the goals set out at the Kyoto Convention. Global warming will be a great concern for future generations, but it is time to take action now to reduce anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and to slow the human-induced global warming process. The longer the worlds nations wait to respond, the more costly the response will be (Herzog, 1999). It would appear that Canada is an ideal place live, yet in order to succeed and live in this fast past environment, a few unknowingly sacrifices have been made.

Canada is one of the main contributors of emission and other deadly gases, which leads to global climate change and therefore should take a more aggressive approach in finding solutions. By not concentrating on finding ways to reduce emission gases, the ozone layer continues to deplete, and therefore causes the climate to change worldwide. Nevertheless it is also important to understand how exactly climate can change. In Canada, there are old and new factories, where the marginal abatement costs for different firms are different. According to the production history, location, and some other criterions, factories are granted different number of tradable rights. They can get more rights through auctions and trading with other factories.

Yet, when this comes to an international level, it is always hard to determine how many permits each country should be granted. The Kyoto Protocol does not set a deadline for achieving the targets, but allows countries to average their emissions over a five-year period 2008 to 2012 to allow for variations in economic growth, weather and other factors. Scientists believe the emissions, once in the atmosphere, produce a greenhouse effect on the Earths temperature, gradually increasing it and causing changes in historical weather patterns. To come into force, the Kyoto accord needs ratification by 55 countries that account for 55% of all industrialized countries' carbon emissions caused mostly by the burning of fossil fuels believed to cause global warming and other climate changes. Canadas ratification is not crucial to meeting the 55/55 goal, but officials say Mr. Chretien would like to be seen as part of the international system for reducing carbon emissions. By forcing Canadian companies to meet mandatory reduction targets by 2012, Canadian companies say they will have to spend money on new energy technologies that will put them at an uncompetitive disadvantage with their U.S. counterparts.

Kyoto would devastate certain economic sectors leaving many Canadians in regions dependent on these industries severely harmed. Kyoto is the creation of political elements in economies, which are energy and resource consumers - primarily European. They devised a system that makes the exporting country pay, not the importing or consuming nation. There is no environmental rationale for this bias - it is simply political and Canada must protect its interests. Kyoto would not decrease global GHG production; it will only shift it to other countries.

The economic benefits of the Kyoto agreement are rarely tabulated when opponents consider the costs - benefits such as technological advancement and innovation for the future, savings due to conservation and reduction on oil dependency (and protection from possible significant increases in oil costs in the near future), as well as reduction in the economic effects of wildly fluctuating petroleum pricing. With the way the U.S. has been behaving lately vis-a-vis international cooperation, we have to be very cautious about what we are willing to sign. No other country in the world is as affected by U.S. economic actions as Canada is.