U.S. and Climate Change: Too Little, Too Late?

Lopinion by

Susan J.

Nov 29, 2013

Different people have different impressions about climate change and how warm the planet is right now. The scientific figures are fairly accurate and it's safe to say that temperatures are escalating. So what can we do? Is it too little too late to hold conferences on global warming?

The U.S. is using its power to drive a timetable on climate change. This could lead to a move toward unity as the 2013 United Nations Climate Change Conference ends in Warsaw.

wikipedia

Negotiations at UN Warsaw Talks

In the final hours of the Warsaw talk, negotiations were under way to establish a realistic timeline about when countries could meet public targets on greenhouse gas emissions. Once published, the assessment of these targets were also discussed.

Most countries have expressed a desire to come to an agreement on this issue by 2015, when diplomats meet in Paris. Reports say that a consensus was still not in place during the closing sessions on the talks.

The special envoy for climate change from the U.S., Todd Stern told reporters, ""The new draft [text on this part of the talks] is in our judgment an improvement on the previous one. It still does not do all the things it needs to do: there could be stronger language indication an effective timeline to drive forward, to give greater clarity about what initial commitment should be put forward … so that everyone from the press, thinktanks, civil society can review and analyse the process. There are still some things we and other countries are pushing to see [in the text] as it comes along. But it's still a step forward," the Guardian reports.

Scientists have expressed their concern that world's developed countries cannot afford to delay emission cuts since it might cause irreversible damage to the planet.

Delays in CO2 Output

According to research published in the Nature Climate Change journal, an immediate response to the climate change issue might lead to a more rapid global warming scenario. Many reports cite that the greenhouse effect could have been easily managed while former President Bill Clinton was president. Despite, scientific research pointing to global warming, most diplomats and heads of state did not address climate change seriously at the time.