Created by: Sergiu Popa, Rodica Timotin, Holban Elena, Victoria Ous, Elena Isac.
School: Mircea Eliade Lyceum
Country: Moldova
Climate change is the greatest environmental challenge facing the world today. The continuing rising global average temperatures will bring huge changes to meteorology. The effects will be and are already being felt at the international level, making very vulnerable chains of regions.
Climate change, as a direct result of Global Warming, is caused by massive emissions of C02 and other greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels since the beginning of the industrial revolution, started in the 19th century until now. In an attempt to address and resolve the critical situation of global warming, many have asked which state should take a greater responsibility for combating climate change. This debate has been largely stimulated by the Kyoto Protocol-the most significant international document regarding the environment, which promoted the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities" for developed countries and developing countries that emit large quantities of green house gases. Today we will try to elucidate as much as possible this dilemma and as affirmative team, we will demonstrate that high-developed countries have to assume a greater responsibility in combating climate change. We will further define the key terms of the motion:
Highly developed countries - states characterized by a high Human Development Index and a high level of industrialization
Responsibility - a duty to be in charge of someone or something, so that you make decisions and can be blamed if something bad happens
(to) Combat - to try to stop something bad from happening or getting worse
Climate change - any long-term significant change in the expected patterns of average weather of a specific region (or, more relevantly to contemporary socio-political concerns, of the Earth as a whole) over an appropriately significant period of time
Criteria: For a stable and secure future
Argument 1: Highly developed countries have a greater responsibility for combating global warming because they have caused it
Carbon dioxide emissions resulting from energy and steel industry processes as well as from transport are substantial. In fact, most of the emissions are generated by power stations and by the industries of cement, lime, iron and steel and also by transport. Highly developed countries, where these sectors have an absolute meaning starting with the industrial revolution, have contributed significantly to the concentrations of CO2 in the atmosphere during their evolution. Thus, highly developed countries have an enormous responsibility in combating climate change, being guilty of the vast majority of emissions of greenhouse gases released in the past and in present. The G8 group alone has contributed with 42.5% of emissions of CO2 between 1992 and 2005 and more than 60% from 1850.
As a conclusion, not all countries have EQUAL responsibilities in reducing the effects of global warming due to differences from the past and the present in the contribution of emissions of greenhouse gases. Highly developed countries have a greater responsibility in combating the phenomenon, because only so will they assure our future.
Argument 2: Highly developed countries have a greater responsibility in combating climate change because they are more influent.
Highly developed countries are an example to follow for the rest of the world because they managed to hold superiority in all existing fields.
In an era where developed countries lead others through capital, socio-political models and through innovative ideas, a strong dependency is created between developed countries and developing countries. In the context of climate change, the initial involvement of highly developed countries is primordial in realizing the problem and taking measures. By taking initiative in fighting this phenomenon, developed countries will show leadership in action toward reducing CO2 emissions. Countries such as the United States of America, Japan, Russia and Great Britain will ensure the involvement of other countries in the fight against climate change and a fight to globally reduce the effects of global warming.
Therefore, the greater responsibility of highly developed countries is justified through taking of the initiative, and directing the actions and ensuring their continuity that will ultimately lead to a stable future for the human kind.
Opposition:
Argument 1: Countries with the largest amounts of CO2 emissions have the greatest responsibility in combating global warming.
It is known that the phenomenon of global warming is caused by the increase of greenhouse gas emissions in atmosphere, of which the most is carbon dioxide. Interdependence of these two phenomena has been demonstrated many times, but the most convincing evidence is joining charts of global temperature growth and concentration of CO2, presented by Al Gore in the movie ‘An Inconvenient Truth’. Otherwise, it is normal that the most rigorous measures to combat global warming should be taken where emission levels are higher, as in those places they are more needed and efficient.
The most important sources of CO2 emissions in the air are: power plants, industrial units, transport with fuel use, extraction, processing and distribution of fossil fuels, commercial units, domestic, etc. It seems logical to associate the speed of the increase of concentration of greenhouse gases with the process of industrialization, and rapid industrialization to relate with highly developed countries. Still it is not fair to put equal between the highly developed countries and those with higher CO2 emissions.
Argument 2: All countries are equally responsible to take measures to prevent global warming.
Global warming is affecting all countries and all people on the planet. Technological progress and the accelerated industrialization of some countries represent important factors causing the increase of the concentration of Greenhouse Gases in the atmosphere. It is terrifying to acknowledge that every year the figures indicating the quantity of gas emitted in the air increase significantly, especially in countries which several years ago had tolerable CO2 levels.
According to an article in the Washington Post, ''The new statistics show that countries such as China, India and Brazil have an increasingly high level of global carbon emissions. Developing countries have more than doubled the amount of CO2 emissions in less than two decades and now are responsible for more than half of the total emissions, in contradiction to approximately one third as it was in 1990. In contrast, the total amount of carbon in highly industrialized nations is only slightly higher than it used to be in 1990.''
There is a strong chance that in several years the now developing countries will reach the level of emissions of the U.S., Russia, Japan, etc, and then the global warming crisis will be much harder to handle. Therefore, regardless of the actual share of CO2 emissions of all countries, they are all responsible for taking measures to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. It is easier to prevent than to treat, therefore all countries, not only the high developed ones, have the responsibility to prevent global warming.
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