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Climate Change and the Economy
Reducing carbon emissions and reversing the negative effects of climate change can only succeed if policies are made with the current economic crisis in mind, says climate change expert Michael Levi.
By Jaya Spier
Website: http://www.bard.edu/bgia/bardpolitik/content.shtml?id=26697347Download pdf: Climate Change and the Economy
NEW YORK, Feb. 5 – The United States must take a leading role in the global community’s efforts to tackle climate change but also has to recognize that reducing carbon emissions cannot be isolated from other issues, specifically the economic crisis, said a leading American climate policy expert on Thursday.
Michael Levi, a senior fellow from the Council on Foreign Relations, told an audience at Bard College's program on Globalization and International Affairs Thursday that the country faced three main challenges: the environment, the economy, and energy.
In his talk, part of Bard's Chace lecture series, Levi laid out potential solutions from his report Confronting Climate Change: A Strategy for U.S. Foreign Policy. This report deals with the emissions of global greenhouse gases. These gases are produced from driving your car to building apartment complexes. We need the energy oil and coal provide, but it is essential to find a new way to produce it without harming our atmosphere, releasing more gas, which covers the earth in a layer, trapping light and raising the temperature of the earth.
Levi points out that solutions are needed to prevent lasting and irreversible harm. As glaciers melt the world will experience an surplus of water, but the longer term result would likely be a drop in available drinkable water. The temperature change also will affect the ecosystems, changing plant and animal life, and straining food production.
Climate change is also influenced by the economy. In his lecture Levi made the point that “you have to deal with it [climate change] as integrated into society and broader challenges.” This is not an issue isolated to a certain area. It will eventually affect everything and everyone. Therefore it is in everybody’s interest to modify the system as soon as possible. Yet, with the current recession, people are less inclined to spend more money, even if it is better for the environment. While contractors are building new homes they may skimp on the better instillation, even if it is better in the long run. Right now is not the time to be “luxurious.”
The task force has proposed five elements to help reduce the production of global greenhouse gases. These are:
1. Cap and trade is where one country may fund another to create ways to lower their gas emissions so they can then take the credit of the reduction without doing it in their own country, but the total global greenhouse gas emissions has still be lowered.
2.Traditional regulation is just the enforcement of laws commanding people to build under certain regulations so that the gas emissions will be lowered.
3. Directly reducing oil consumption is fairly self-explanatory. If gas prices are raised through taxes or incentives, perhaps more people will use public transportation, ride bikes or walk. Buildings, and entire nations, will have the incentive to improve energy efficiency.
4. Research development, finding other ways to build and work and live in a similar way while lowering gas emissions.
5. Promoting infrastructure, richer countries aiding poorer countries in progressing with a “greener” agenda.
If these elements can help us cut down on global greenhouse emissions then we can really make a difference. America is on its way to making the first steps and as the new foreign policy is put into place, the American government will be more effective globally. For this to work the United States must join together with the other biggest global emitters to reduce their own emissions as well. These countries are: China, India, Russia, the EU, Brazil, Indonesia, and Japan. America must partner with these countries and refrain from giving the impression that they just want to take over the project. This is a global issue that must be attacked globally, everyone working together.
The task force is hoping to cut emissions by 60-80% by 2050 starting immediately. This is to create gradual transformation over time where abrupt transformation would be harmful. As Levi said in his lecture we need to “minimize economic harm while maximizing opportunity…there are going to be a lot of new opportunities” and we need to take advantage of them. With the Kyoto Protocol, the environmental treaty that took place in 1997, expiring in 2012 it is really up to this year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference taking place in Copenhagen to decide the new plan of action. Levis conclusion is that leadership must come from the White House. With the new administration and a lot on the agenda, climate change must be a top priority.