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Lai Kit Ming

16064281D

Developing countries are less responsible for climate change but stand to suffer

greater damage. Should this be considered when distributing global obligations on

emission reduction?
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1. The Introduction

1.1 Who caused climate change

Actually, natural and human are the cause of climate change, but it’s mainly

caused by human. Natural is one of the cause because of the following factors:

orbital change, volcanic eruption, variation in solar radiation and the

movement of crustal plates. Human is one of the cause because of the

emission of greenhouse gases.

1.2 What the global community done on climate change

The global community have created the Intergovernmental Panel for solving

Climate Change, such as the Rio Earth Summit and Kyoto Protocol. They try

to control the amount of greenhouse gases emitted and energy used by

different countries by creating such protocol.

1.3 My general view on climate change

In my opinion, human are the main cause of the climate change and the global

community should do more to work on the climate change. Which is our

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responsibility.

1.4 The objective of the essay

In this essay, we want to check that weather developing countries are less

responsible for climate change but stand to suffer greater damage. And should

this be considered when distributing global obligations on emission reduction.

1.5 The key word’s definition

Climate change is talking about a region or city have some change in the

typical or average weather. This could be a change in a region's average

annual rainfall. May be it’s a change in a region's average temperature in a

month or a season. Climate change is also a change in Earth's overall climate.

It can be a change in global's average temperature. May be it’s a change in

global's typical precipitation patterns. According to the Cambridge Dictionary,

obligation means something that you must do and damage is mean to harm

and injury. According to the Kyoto Protocol, emission reduction means the

reduction of greenhouse gases.

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1.6 Climate change is a moral/ethical issue

The climate change is a moral issue, a lot of catholic think that our earth is a

gift from god, and we should not destroy or contaminate it. We also found that

the poor are unfairly affected by climate change. Because the rich don’t take

the poor into account while making economic decision. Since the poor have

less resources to adapt to climate change, they are not able to move their house

or switch job as the rich man did.

1.7 Climate change is a political issue

“Political” mean something like the judgement by a society about justice and

the common benefit. If some parties have negative effect on human being

while profiting off of the production and use of fossil fuels. And it’s definitely

related to justice and common benefit.

1.8 Essay in different section

The body paragraph will be divided into the impact of the climate change, the
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society’s response and the respond to the objective and overview, totally three

section.
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3. The Conclusion

Since the eighteenth century industrial revolution, countries around the world have

been actively developing industry, burning fossil fuels, emitting large amounts of

green house gases. The enhancement of the greenhouse effect include the

greenhouse effect refer to the solar heat exposure to the surface, par of the

refraction back to space, part of the heat by the surface and the atmosphere to

absorb, so that the surface to keep warm. With the increase in greenhouse gases,

greenhouse gases absorbed retain too much solar heat, enhance the greenhouse

effect, leading to global warming. The impact of global warming included glaciers

melt, sea level rise. Earth temperatures rise, the Himalia’s, Greenland, Antarctic

and other glaciers begin to melt; sea level rise, coastal cities threaten by salt tide,

and may even suffer submerged. The world’s major populations live in coastal area,

and 11 of the top 15 cities in the world are located coastal area. China’s densely

populated,economically developed Yantze River Delta, Pearl River and Yellow

River Delta urban agglomeration will be threatened by sea level rise. As long as the

sea level rises by more than one meter, island such as the Maldives will be

submerged. Since the industrial revolution, the concentration of greenhouse gases

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in the atmosphere has increased, and the impact on the climate has overshadowed

the natural factors. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate

Change (IPCC) has made it clear that human behavior causes climate change and

that greenhouse gases are a major culprit in global warming. Over the past 20

years, the United Nations has held numerous international conferences to discuss

the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions programs, the common fight against

global warming. However, countries have no doubt about the responsibility for

emission reductions, developing countries and developed countries have to

consider their own emission reductions? What is the political wrestling?December

2012 The Paris Agreement was adopted at the Paris Climate Summit, and in

October 2016 the United Nations declared that the Paris Agreement came into

effect on 4 November. One of the objectives of the Agreement is to control the

global average temperature at the end of the century, less than 2 ° C before the

Industrial Revolution, and to stri ve to limit the increase at 1.5 ° C. Countries need

to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Agreement stipulates that both developing and developing countries are

required to devote long-term emissions reductions and are seen as a major

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breakthrough in combating climate change. "Agreement" requires countries to

"self-contribution" approach to climate change, in accordance with national

conditions, the ability to put forward their own emission reductions. For example,

the United States promised to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 26% to

28% by 2025 by 2025, to 80% by 2050 by 2050, while China proposed the use of

non-fossil fuels (such as wind, solar, etc.) in 2030, Accounting for about 20% of the

"primary energy" consumption; carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP fell 60%

to 65% from 2005. In addition, the developed countries pledged to provide US $

100 billion (approximately HK $ 780 billion) of emission reduction assistance to

developing countries each year by 2020 to assist countries affected by climate

change to develop low-carbon technologies and switch to renewable energy. Xie

Zhenhua supports the Agreement to embody the practice of distinguishing between

developed and developing countries, believing that the principles are in line with

the requirements of the Chinese side and hope that all parties will take active

measures to strengthen the implementation of the Agreement by 2020, especially

the developed countries should earnestly deliver to developing countries Capital,

technology, ability to support and so on. - China Climate Change Affairs Special
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Representative Xie Zhenhua. Indian Prime Minister Moody's argues that for the

sake of climate justice, rich countries should bear the historical responsibility for

climate warming; he means that the developed countries should not force the

developing countries to abandon fossil fuels completely because "wealthy countries

build prosperity through burning coal" Forced abandonment of fossil fuels will

affect the economic development of developing countries and endanger the poor.

CVF, also known as "fragile 20 countries", members include Afghanistan, Ethiopia,

Maldives and so on. It urged the Paris summit participants to control this century's

temperature to 1.5 ° C ahead of the industrial revolution, and called on the

international community to create a legally binding climate change agreement.

Spokesman Huck said they were the most affected by climate change Country, but

the summit is a power game, power is not on their side. - Vulnerable Forum on

Vulnerability (CVF, Climate Vulnerable Forum). The 1992 United Nations

Framework Convention on Climate Change established the principle of "common

but differentiated responsibilities" that developed countries were the first to reduce

emissions. The Paris Agreement also embodies this principle. As a developing

country, China, President Xi Jinping, stressed before the meeting that the
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Agreement should be conducive to taking care of the national conditions,

respecting national policies and economic structures. China Climate Change Affairs

Special Representative Xie Zhenhua wrote before the summit, referring to some

developed countries to the world economic pattern changes on the grounds that

promote the establishment of 2020 after all countries of common emission

reduction, developed countries and developing countries co-financing of the new

mechanism. He pointed out that the developed countries only consider the

advantages and interests of the development of the country, but obscured the

historical responsibility of the developed countries on climate change, the

difference between the developed countries and the developing countries at the

social level and the ability to cope with climate change. The basic principles of the

Convention. In addition, he refers to developing countries mostly face different

levels of economy, eliminate poverty, improve people's livelihood, protect the

environment, cope with climate change and other challenges, they actively protect

the climate environment, should also maintain their own reasonable development

interests. Philippine President Duthert also said that poor countries such as the

Philippines should be allowed to pursue industrialization to improve living

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standards and that the goal of reducing carbon is crazy and that the Philippines has

not yet confirmed the Paris Agreement.Although India by the impact of global

warming, but in the Paris summit in India once tough position, insist on poverty is

India's policy focus. Prime Minister Moody also stressed that 300 million people

living in India without electricity in the environment. India in October 2016 to the

United Nations to pay the Paris Agreement, the commitment to 2030 years ago at

least 40% of electricity from non-fossil energy power generation. David Waskow,

director of the International Climate Initiative at the World Resources Institute, said

India has repeatedly experienced the crisis of climate change in recent years:

storms and floods, catastrophic heat waves and so on. In order to improve the

climate problem, India's actions show its determination. Emission reduction

program One of the key points is to switch to renewable energy, the country in

recent years began to rapidly develop solar energy and wind energy led by

renewable energy, to reduce dependence on traditional fossil fuel power generation.

According to the World Bank study, if the Earth's temperature rises by 2 ° C before

the industrial revolution, hundreds of millions of people will be seriously affected.

The global warming led to melting glaciers, rising sea levels and extreme weather
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became constant, directly affecting the Pacific island countries and lowland people.

Former Philippine President Aquino III noted that since 2010, natural disasters

have taken away more than 50,000 lives in 20 countries (CVF), which are

vulnerable to the Climate Affected Vulnerable Countries (CVF), and the rise in the

sea poses a threat to island countries, Will soon increase in the future. In May 2016,

Australian scientists found the Pacific Solomon Islands 33 low-lying coral reef

islands, nearly 70 years by the sea water level increased tired, has five islands were

flooded. The research report is accused of the impact of global warming on the

Pacific coast of the first proof, highlighting the sea level rise threat to the Pacific

low-lying island reef.Kerry agreed that the developed countries should bear more

responsibility for emission reduction, but he pointed out that even if every

American citizen to ride a bike to work, public transport to school, home use of

solar energy, each species more than 10 trees, and even all Industrialized countries

have reached zero emissions, still not enough to offset carbon emissions from other

countries in the world. Nearly 65% of the world's carbon emissions from

developing countries, if only the developed countries to reduce emissions is not

enough, the developing countries should make every effort to reduce emissions. -
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US Secretary of State Kerry.German Chancellor Angela Merkel pointed out that

China can take out the 2030 emission reduction schedule is not simple, but she

called on China to set ambitious emission reduction targets, she also suggested that

industrial countries can also develop some of the capacity of clean energy

technology Coping with climate change. - German Chancellor Angela

Merkel.There are comments that it is out of date when developing countries and

developing countries decide to reduce emissions. For example, China's rapid

industrial development, China's carbon emissions have surpassed the United States,

becoming the world's first, India's carbon emissions is also the third highest after

the Sino-US high; oil-producing countries Saudi Arabia was listed as a developing

country, Bear the corresponding responsibility for emission reduction. Comments

indicate that oil-exporting countries are not active in reducing emissions because

their economies are heavily dependent on energy exports, such as Venezuela's oil

exports account for 96% of total national exports. Decline in emissions means

reducing energy use and combating oil exporting countries' national income. Many

developed countries require developing countries to force the same emission

reduction, can not stay out. US Secretary of State Kerry stressed that if relying
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solely on developed countries to reduce emissions, is not enough to improve global

warming, it requires emerging countries should also reduce emissions and show the

results to the world. After the summit, Kerry accepted the "Washington Post" visit,

that even if the "agreement" does not guarantee the effectiveness of climate change

can be alleviated. He believes that the government's decision is only a catalyst, to

really change the private enterprises, such as they do not invest in new technology

and renewable energy development, it is difficult to achieve emission reduction.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomes China's emission reduction

measures, but believes that China as the world's highest carbon emissions, should

set a higher emission reduction targets, she also pointed to the developed countries

will shoulder the task of R & D to help developing countries to address climate

change , To prevent the emergence of climate change caused by the influx of

refugees. In July 1916, United Nations Climate Change and El Nino Special Envoy

Mary Robinson condemned Germany and Britain for abandoning the Agreement

and still funding the development of environmentally harmful energy sources.

Merkel admitted that coal for a long period of time, is still a major pillar of the

German energy supply. So that we can concluded that the many agreement are
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unfair and it only protect the developed countries but don’t have the same effect on

the developing countries. So that the statement is correct. The developing countries

have less responsibilities but it need to suffer greater damage. It’s not fair.
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4. Referencing

Denise Miller (Sept. 17, 2015). What Are Climate and Climate Change?.

Retrieved June 11, 2017 from NASA Educational Technology Services, Web site:

http://www.nasa.gov/audience/forstudents/5-8/features/nasa-knows/what-is-

climate-change-58.html

(26 JAN. 2016). International Efforts to Combat Climate Change. Retrieved

Month Date, from planete energies, Web site: http://www.planete-

energies.com/en/medias/close/international- efforts-combat-climate-change

Martin, S. J. (March 29, 2017). Father James Martin: Why is climate change a

moral issue?. Retrieved Month Date, from

http://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2017/03/29/father-james-martin-why-

climate-change-moral-issue

Littlejohn, S. J. (February 8, 2017). Climate change is political and there’s

nothing wrong with that. . Retrieved Month Date, from mereorthodoxy, Web site:
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http://mereorthodoxy.com/conservatives-should-be-alarmed-by-trumps-approach-

to-climate-change/

Wade, S. J. (27-07-2015). Climate change and the global economy: regional

effects. Retrieved Month Date, from schroders, Web site:

http://http://www.schroders.com/nl/nl/institutioneel/nieuws-

narktinformatie/economie/climate-change-and-the-global-economy-regional-

effects/