{"id":847,"date":"2011-09-26T04:50:12","date_gmt":"2011-09-26T04:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/?p=847"},"modified":"2011-11-20T19:44:21","modified_gmt":"2011-11-20T19:44:21","slug":"technology-race-the-solution-to-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/2011\/09\/technology-race-the-solution-to-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Technology Race: The Solution to Climate Change?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Key Authors of RFF Report<\/p><\/div>\n

By: Christine Burns ’14<\/p>\n

Finding an economically viable solution to global climate change is an arduous task, but if we want a planet that can continue to support life, than we must take up the challenge.\u00a0 Assessing US Climate Policy Options<\/a><\/em> is a report written through the Resources for the Future<\/a> (RFF).\u00a0 The major contributors to this report are listed in Figure 1. Clearly most of these companies \u00a0have something to loose should America shift in a greener direction, so they wanted to share their perspective on the issue. Unfortunately, due to their chance to loose a lot, I do not feel they are in a position discuss these issues without bias. Their report is for the most part an investigation into the economics of climate change policy. Although they did make some valid points, in my opinion, they never supplied a very concrete solution even from an economic standpoint.<\/p>\n

This report discussed the economic viability of many different scenarios from cap and trade systems, regulations, emissions reductions, ect, but the most concrete idea I got from this report was the need to invest in technology. Ultimately, technology will allow companies such as the ones in Figure 1. to meet their goals and operate within strict regulations.\u00a0 Unfortunately, right now sustainable technology is not developing on its own at the necessary rate to have a positive impact on climate change. \u00a0So, should the United States decide to tax carbon emitters or sell allowances to companies; that money should then be used to fund technological advancement.\u00a0 Another way to encourage technological growth would be to put in place strict regulations that would require individual companies to fund technological research in order meet standards.\u00a0 Personally, I think that government funding in addition to regulations would be the best way to enhance technological development.<\/p>\n

The authors of the report point out that most of the world looks to the United States, and if the United States started to reduce its emissions other countries would follow, in fact other countries such as China require that the US lead.\u00a0 Theoretically, the same could be said of technological development.\u00a0 If the US started investing serious money into alternative energy, carbon capture and storage (CCS), and greater efficiency of products; other countries might do the same.\u00a0 Maybe it could even start positive technological competitions as happened with say the space race.\u00a0 These technological advancements developed could then be shared with the developing countries so that they can finish their development sustainably.\u00a0 There are many countries sucha as the Maldives<\/a>\u00a0and Sub-Saharan Africa<\/a>\u00a0that will be greatly impacted by climate change no matter how soon mitigation efforts start Some of that technological development can be used to assist these countries adapt.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The first point that the entire report made was that the United States needed to balance aggressive climate goals and economic viability.\u00a0 Well, according to Ackerman and Stanton from Tufts University<\/a>, the effects of climate change within the United States could cost 1.9 trillion dollars a year, or 3.6 percent of GDP.\u00a0 This number is within the United States alone. It\u2019s hard to even imagine what that could translate into for poorer countries with experiencing stronger effects.\u00a0 So it is time that changes were made, and the United States has the ability to lead the way. \u00a0We live in the age of technology, and their lies our hope for the future.<\/p>\n

Works Consulted:<\/p>\n

Ackerman and Stanton. 2008. “The Cost of Climate Change: What We’ll Pay if Climate Change goes UnChecked.” Natural Resources Defense Counsel.<\/p>\n

Kopp and Pizer, eds., 2007. \u201cOverview,\u201d in Assessing U.S. Climate Policy Options, Resources for the Future, Washington DC, pp. 6-21.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Christine Burns ’14
\nFinding an economically viable solution to global climate change is an arduous task, but if we want a planet that can continue to support life, than we must take up the challenge.\u00a0 Assessing US Climate Policy Options is a report written through the Resources for the Future (RFF).\u00a0 The major contributors to this report are listed in Figure 1. Clearly most of these companies \u00a0have something to loose should America shift in a greener direction, so they wanted to share their perspective on the issue. Unfortunately, due to their chance to loose a lot, I do not feel they are in a position discuss these issues without bias. Their report is for the most part an investigation into the economics of climate change policy. Although they did make some valid points, in my opinion, they never supplied a very concrete solution even from an economic standpoint.
\nThis report …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":840,"featured_media":865,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1891,19448],"tags":[40506,34237,40508,40507,40503,35],"class_list":["post-847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-carbon-markets","category-climate-change-2","tag-assessing-us-climate-policy-options","tag-christine-burns","tag-economic-viability-of-climate-change","tag-resources-for-the-future","tag-rff","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/cop17durban\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}