In a groundbreaking decision U.S. president George W. Bush unveiled plans to bring some of the World’s biggest polluters to the same discussion table where they will find a way to reduce the greenhouse effect in the environment, gradually resulting to a diminishing effect of global warming. This decision is most welcome keeping in the fact that U.S., the World’s top emitter of greenhouse gases have been the only G8 that eluded Kyoto Protocol till date. Being constantly under pressure from the economically strong countries to take tougher actions against global warming, Bush had taken initiative by calling UN, EU, and 11 industrial and developing countries to a meeting by the end of September in Washington to work towards setting long term strategies to cut down the emission of greenhouse gases to a substantial amount.
Bush has agreed with leaders at a G8 summit in June to make substantial but non specified reduction of greenhouse emissions. He however has rejected to sign up numerical targets as he feels it would hurt the business of U.S. as long as countries like India and China are exempt. In his words,
In recent years, science has deepened our understanding of climate change and opened new possibilities for confronting it…United States is committed to collaborating with other major economies on a new global framework for curbing greenhouse gas emissions
This is always a welcome decision of George Bush to come out with an initiative. However be the reason behind it, the beginning of the discussion will always be helpful for the sake of the entire world. But the political world has voiced concern over the entire matter. Bush was reluctant to join the Kyoto protocol, he still is. He is ready to see a ‘substantial’ reduction of emission in U.S. However, there is no numeric amount mentioned in his agenda. There will always be questions how this kind of unspecified reduction can be of much use. On the other hand Bush is in process to impose force on developing countries like India and China to attend the meeting. He is quite concerned about the jolt his business emporium will face if countries like India and China remain exempt of the emission rule. There are speculations that may be there will be a pressure situations on these two countries also to face heavy emission restrictions with U.S. According to some officials the entire thing is nothing but a bid to deflect attention from U.N. efforts and evade international calls for strict U.S. limits on emissions. For environmentalists, with the highest emitter running loose, the chance of actual reduction of greenhouse emission is negligible.
Whatever be the decision, this is high time for the advanced minds to understand the situation and to start acting accordingly. If the emission law is not imposed, there will be industrial benefit, that is of no doubt, but if this trend continues, sooner or later there will be no industry any more. So this is the time to wake up, and start thinking a strategy that every country should follow in order to have a grip over the current situation and to reserve a better tomorrow for our next generation.
