After attending the Rose-Becker Cafe–Environmental Panel on October 14th, I realized that there are many aspects of environmental awareness I am not aware of. In the event, Professors Shanjun Li, Greg Poe, and David Wolfe discussed both domestic and international environmental issues. I was very surprised when I learned from the panel that there is still no global agreement on what the CO2 cap should be. Every year, there are always some kind of environmental conference, or summits attended by states representative to discuss environmental problems and potential solution. I was shocked to find out there was not an international agreement on capping carbon dioxide despite all these summits. Domestically, the U.S. has the Clean Air Act, but turns out it only poses some limits on the greenhouse gas(GHG) on certain facilities and there is no limit to the country’s carbon dioxide emission as a whole. Yet, the EPA has been putting effort into reducing GHG emission through increasing stringency of GHG emission through imposing different restriction on chemicals use in the transportation and industrial sectors. Around the world, the Kyoto Protocol commits State Parties to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The most recent negotiations were held in have different countries to agree on a post-Kyoto legal framework that would obligate all major polluters to pay for CO2 emissions. However, China, India, and the United States have all signaled that they will not ratify any treaty that will commit them legally to reduce CO2 emissions. It seems like there is a difficult balance between boosting domestic economy and committing to environmental protection. For example, as Prof. Li mentioned, in China, heavy industrial activities that emits high concentration of GHG are common because the states government want their states to have high gross domestic product and fortify their economy. Perhaps, the concern about facilitating the country’s own economy causes most country to be taken aback when it comes to committing themselves legally on CO2 emission reduction.
