6.4.7 Rules and Regulations

6.4.7 Rules and Regulations

How does globalization affect the environment?

Industry and daily living affect the environment, which does not respect the borders of nations or provinces. When pollution occurs in one country, other nations are affected. Greenhouse gases do not affect the climate only of the nation in which they are produced--they affect everyone. Ironically, their effects are even worse in areas where few emissions exist, such as sub-Saharan Africa and the far north.


International Agreements are needed. Individuals can take many measures to limit the negative effect of their lives on the planet, but for real action, sometimes laws are required to force corporations and individuals to make changes to protect the planet and ensure our survival. Because pollution, environmental degradation, and global warming do not respect political borders, international agreements are necessary.

Montreal Protocol: The tiny layer of ozone in the Earth's atmosphere has been getting thinner over the years, and holes have been reported in this layer over the poles. One of the chief causes for the thinning of the ozone layer is CFCs, or chlorofluorocarbons-the chemicals found in air conditioners, fridges, and aerosol sprays. The Montreal Protocol is an international treaty designed to protect the ozone layer.

It became law in January of 1989 and has been called "... the single most successful international agreement to date." Since it was signed, the atmospheric concentrations of the most important chlorofluorocarbons have either levelled or decreased. On the negative side, CFCs were largely replaced with HCFCs, which contribute to global warming. HCFCs are scheduled to be phased out by the year 2030.

The Kyoto Protocol

View the map below. The legend is beneath the map.

• Dark Green: Countries with binding targets (Europe, Greenland, Australia)
  
• Light Green: Developing countries without binding targets
  
• Grey: States not Party to the Protocol (Antarctica, South Sudan)
  
• Orange: Countries that signed the agreement but do not plan to fulfill their targets (United States)
  
• Red: Countries that have pulled out of the Protocol (Canada)
  
• Purple: Parties with no binding targets, which previously had targets (Russia, Japan, New Zealand)
  

In 1997 almost every country in the world signed an international treaty called the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

In addition to this treaty, most nations have also ratified the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty with individual, legally-binding targets to limit or reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. The objective is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions which contribute to global warming.

In 2011, Canada became the only country in the world to withdraw from Kyoto. Canada's Minister of the Environment, Peter Kent, claimed, "The Kyoto Protocol does not cover the world's largest two emitters, United States and China, and therefore cannot work. It's now clear that Kyoto is not the path forward to a global solution to climate change. If anything it's an impediment."

Criticisms of Kyoto

• Countries in the developing world do not have any reduction limits. Many of these countries are major contributors to global warming.
  
  
• Cutting emissions will be harmful to the economy in countries like Canada, a country that adds to worldwide emissions because of the oil sands, the country's fastest growing source of greenhouse gases.
  
  
• The focus on greenhouse gas emissions means that less attention is paid to other very dangerous environmental issues, such as particulate pollution.
  
  
• Some nations want to establish their own targets.