Climate change and Responsibility

Do developed countries have a higher obligation to combat climate change?

Global warming is the result of the massive emission of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses from the burning of fossil fuels throughout the industrial revolution, beginning in the 19th century. In attempting to address and solve global warming, many have asked whether developed nations – which led the industrial revolution and are responsible for most of the greenhouse gases now in the atmosphere – should bear a greater responsibility for combating climate change.
This debate has been stimulated in large part by the Kyoto Protocol, which exempted developing nations such as China and India, from the same emissions-reductions obligations as developed countries. The principle underlying Kyoto is known as “common but differentiated responsibilities”, which continues as a centrepiece principle for those calling on Developed countries to assume a greater responsibility. China, India, and other developing countries call for recognition of this principle, while many developed countries argue that conditions have changed as developing countries have begun to industrialize and pollute more rapidly in recent years.
There are many arguments and issues involved in this public debate which are discussed below:

Arguments in favour of higher obligations on part of developed countries:

• Developed/developing have common but differentiated responsibilities. The Rio Declaration from The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development states – “In view of the different contributions to global environmental degradation, States have common but differentiated responsibilities. The developed countries acknowledge the responsibility that they bear in the international pursuit of sustainable development in view of the pressures their societies place on the global environment and of the technologies and financial resources they command.”
• Developed emit more per capita; more obligated to cut rate. Emissions per capita are much higher in developed countries (20t per capita in the US) compared to developing ones (less than 4t per capita). This means that individuals in developed nations are more responsible for causing global warming, more responsible for continuing global warming, and so more obligated to cut emissions and solve the problem. These individuals must, therefore, pressure their governments to take greater action on their behalf.
• Contraction/Convergence equalizes per capita emissions, burdens wealthy. Contraction and Convergence is a good proposal for addressing the imbalance between per capita emissions around the world. It holds developed countries responsible for cutting their per capita emissions (contraction) and meeting developing countries in the middle (convergence). Developing countries are fairly allowed to continue to develop and increase per capita emissions to a level equal to developed countries “in the middle”. The obligation, in this case, falls more heavily on developed nations to reduce their emissions.
• Historic Reason: Since, developed countries caused global warming so they must fix it as well. It must be pointed out that climate change has been caused by the long-term historic emissions of Developed Countries and their high per-capita emissions…Developed countries bear an unshirkable responsibility.
• Developed countries hypocritically reprimand developing states. It is hypocritical for developed countries to complain at developing countries for polluting more heavily at present, when this is exactly what developed countries did long ago to achieve their great wealth. Furthermore, it should be noted that it is only through this heavy industrialization that developed countries are now in a position of wealth and know-how that offers them the luxury of going “green”.
• Developed states have more available money to fight climate change. Developed states obviously have more wealth to employ in combating global warming. These more able countries have a responsibility to employ their available financial resources toward fighting global warming. Developing countries also have this obligation to commit as much as they can, but because they have far fewer available resources, their obligation and commitment will simply be smaller. Developed nations are uniquely obligated to employ these greater available resources in the fight on global climate change.
• Developing states live in subsistence, lower “green” obligation. Developing countries employ almost all of their resources on subsistence living, while developed countries spend much of their resources on luxury and excesses. When this is the case, developing nations cannot be expected to contribute equally to fighting global climate change.
• Developed are responsible to commit “green” technologies. Developed states have more applicable technologies and know-how for the fight on global warming. They are uniquely responsible to commit these resources toward the fight on global warming. They are also responsible to transfer them to developing countries, which cannot effectively fight global warming without these technologies first.
• Developing nations need room to develop without emission restrictions. Developing nations need room to develop industry and grow, just like developed nations were allowed to do in their industrial development. Heavy emissions regulations constrain such growth and are unfair as such.
• Going “green” in developed nations is not burden, but opportunity. While it may be the case that developed countries are “obligated” to take the lead on global warming, this should not be considered a “burden”. Increasing energy efficiency and establishing technical and capital dominance in the emerging global green industry is a potentially game changing opportunity for developed nations. Developed nations should, in this manner, rejoice in any perspective taken by developing countries such as China and India that the developed world is somehow “burdened” by taking the lead in this new massive “green” industry.

Arguments against higher obligations on part of developed countries:

• “Obligations”/”Equality” distract from solving climate change. The idea that some countries are more responsible than others to cut emissions and fight global warming misses the point – global warming is a collective, global problem that can only be successfully combated if every country puts its wits and resources fully behind resolving the crisis. Developed and developing countries are equally responsible to resolve the crisis. Developing nations should swallow their legitimate frustrations with developed nations for causing global warming, and focus their attention on helping form a collective solution.
• Seeking equality of emissions fails to cut overall emissions. If developed nations are forced to cut emissions and developing nations allowed to increase per capita emissions – with both meeting in the middle – the ultimate result is that developing-country-increases cancel out developed-country-reductions. Overall emissions would be kept constant and not reduced. In fact, because developing nations have larger populations, meeting in the middle on per capita emissions could result in even higher overall emissions.
• Equality of per capita emissions does not work when states specialize. In modern international capitalism and free trade, states specialize in areas in which they have a comparative advantage. This may mean that some states specialize in manufacturing and some in services, industries with far different emissions. Attempting to hold these specializing states to the same per capita emissions levels, therefore, does not make sense. It would require that all states have the same share of all industries, which is neither economically or environmentally desirable.
• Developed states did not initially know they were causing warming. Developed nations did not always know that they were causing global warming by burning fossil fuels and emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. This knowledge only began to form in the 1980s and 1990s, over a century after the industrial revolution had begun. It is inappropriate, therefore, to hold developed nations morally accountable for starting the industrial revolution and causing global warming; they knew not what they were doing.
• Largest states are responsible to lead on climate change. US, Japan, China, Germany, India, and Brazil are among the largest and most powerful countries in the world. This list, and a larger list of G20 states, includes both developed and developing nations. China, India, and Brazil are the most notable large developing nations in the G20. Due to their size, economic power, and emissions (now and in the future), they share an equal responsibility to fight global warming.
• If poor are most affected, they should be willing to invest. Poor states are indeed disproportionately affected by global warming. Investing available resources in combating global warming is, therefore, an imperative of developing nations. It goes hand-in-hand with – instead of taking away from (as argued by the affirmative side) – efforts to combat poverty, disease, and social disruption.
• Emissions exemptions for China/India will inflate outsourcing to them. By holding developed countries to a greater obligation to fight global warming and by exempting China and India from certain emissions requirements, developed countries will be put at an economic and job-market disadvantage. It will be even more likely that jobs are outsourced to China and India, leaving the middle class of developed countries suffering.
• World’s manufacturing is in China; emissions must be cut there. It is true that much of the world’s manufacturing and emissions are occurring in China. But, this is not a cause for exempting these countries from the emissions standards present in developed countries. This would effectively mean that the world and all the nations that outsource to China get an exemption, so long as they are outsourcing to China, which would be unfortunate on many levels. The world should not allow for such an emissions loophole, and must act to fully constrain emissions in China without exemptions.