Future Proposals
“So we have a choice to make. We can remain one of the world’s leading importers of foreign oil, or we can make the investments that would allow us to become the world’s leading exporter of renewable energy. We can let climate change continue to go unchecked, or we can help stop it. We can let the jobs of tomorrow be created abroad, or we can create those jobs right here in America and lay the foundation for lasting prosperity.”
-US President Barack Obama, March 19, 2009
U.S. President Barack Obama’s speech shares the sentiment that many global climatologists and environmentalists agree upon. Immediate action needs to take place in order to reduce the damaging effects of global warming. The facts about global warming and its detrimental effects are irreversible. Scientists have provided greater evidence that humans are largely to blame for global warming in the last two centuries. As the world is growing and the developing world is catching up to the industrialized world, more resources and energy reserves are being tapped as demand for energy keeps rising. As people started to take notice that the world was heading to a less sustainable future, the cap and trade program came into fruition which has since produced a number of other efforts and proposals for the future. The cap and trade program laid down the framework for a more effective and efficient program, but it still remains a work in progress. The coalition of nations that produced the Kyoto Protocol among other directives has shown that nations are working together to tackle global warming. With almost all countries signed onto the UNFCCC, there is sign of unity in the commitment towards producing cleaner technologies around the world.
Some of the commitments that the U.S. government has made include putting more than $80 billion in clean energy investments that will jump-start the economy and build clean energy jobs. The budget is broken down into:
o $11 billion for a bigger, better, and smarter grid that will move renewable energy from the rural places it is produced to the cities where it is mostly used, as well as for 40 million smart meters to be deployed in American homes.
o $5 billion for low-income home weatherization projects.
o $4.5 billion to green federal buildings and cut our energy bill, saving taxpayers billions of dollars.
o $6.3 billion for state and local renewable energy and energy efficiency efforts.
o $600 million in green job training programs – $100 million to expand line worker training programs and $500 million for green workforce training.
o $2 billion in competitive grants to develop the next generation of batteries to store energy.
Other plans are:
* Increasing, for the first time in more than a decade, the fuel economy standards for Model Year 2011 for cars and trucks so they will get better mileage, saving drivers money and spurring companies to develop more innovative products.
* The President issued a memorandum to the Department of Energy to implement more aggressive efficiency standards for common household appliances, like dishwashers and refrigerators. Through this step, over the next three decades, twice the amount of energy produced by all the coal-fired power plants in America will be saved in any given year.
* Supporting the first steps of a legally-binding treaty to reduce mercury emissions worldwide.
* On Earth Day 2009, the President unveiled a program to develop the renewable energy projects on the waters of the Outer Continental Shelf that produce electricity from wind, wave, and ocean currents. These regulations will enable, for the first time ever, the nation to tap into the ocean’s vast sustainable resources to generate clean energy in an environmentally sound and safe manner.
There are several other cap and trade programs that are taking place in the U.S, a notable one took place in December 2009, a memorandum signed between Governor Arnold Schwarznegger of California and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar for streamlining siting and approval of renewable energy facilities on public lands. It was the first memorandum to be signed between state and federal government involving energy production. It aims to expedite about 30 solar, wind and geothermal projects on track to break ground by the end of 2010 and become eligible for more than $15 billion in federal stimulus funds. In addition, the California governor intends to rely one-third of the state’s energy’s needs on renewable sources by 2020. This and many other pacts formed state-wide are coming into effect in the near future.
In December 2009 at the Climate summit held in Copenhagen, Denmark, the EU has committed to investing money into cleaner energy technologies in developing countries. More than eleven and a half billion dollars was pledged for the following three years to help poor countries combat rising seas levels, deforestation, water shortages and carbon emissions. It is now expected other industrialised nations will also pledge many more billions. Also announcing the decision the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, said the EU would also push to reduce its emissions by 30 per cent by 2020. Meanwhile a document prepared by the summit’s chairman calls on developed countries to cut their emissions by between 25 and 45 percent from 1990 levels by 2020.
