Despite contributing more than 22 percent of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions, the United States still refuses to sign a treaty attempting to reduce emissions and slow global warming — a topic addressed last night at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Danish ambassador to the United States Friss Arne Petersen spoke last night about about lagging U.S. environmental efforts and tried to rally audience members to encourage U.S. involvement in a 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference — aimed at revising the Kyoto Protocol.
Petersen cited the U.S.’s refusal to sign the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, a treaty aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions and slowing global warming, as a disappointment, noting that 184 countries have agreed to the terms of the protocol.
“Why should other countries shoulder a burden that is largely the U.S. and Europe,” he said.
Petersen said he attended the recent Democratic and Republican conventions and offered praise for the environmental policies of both presidential candidates. He said Sen. John McCain was the first congressman to visit him in Greenland, where global warming’s negative effects are apparent, and called Sen. Barack Obama’s plan for a 10 percent increase in U.S. energy efficiency a “daring and courageous move.”
Denmark, where the conference will be held, gets nearly 20 percent of its energy from wind power, while the U.S. receives only 1 percent of its energy from wind. None of Denmark’s oil imports come from the Middle East, whereas 21 percent of America’s oil imports are obtained this way.
Petersen found the ethical questions surrounding offshore drilling to be superficial and compared Danish and American environmental goals.
“In America, it’s about energy independence or energy security,” he said. “In Denmark, our policy is a matter of belief, conviction and science.”
After the speech, the audience had the opportunity to discuss different ways the United Nations could convince the United States to support the new version of the Kyoto Protocol.
Jen Cochrane, who was visiting from England, said the United States might support the treaty if it received economic incentives.
“You need to make it economically viable to superpowers,” Cochrane said.
Attendee Richard Schultz also voiced concern over the inclusion of economic and environmental in the second generation of the Kyoto Protocol.
“There needs to be a greater combination of economical concerns and environmental concerns,” he said.
Attendee and MIT School of Engineering junior Clara Depaolis said she studied the Kyoto Protocol and the European Union while studying abroad in Germany. Depaolis said the United States’ lack of commitment to environmental programs stems from its inability to use green technologies to create governmental policies.
“I don’t think it’s a deficiency between technology and policy as much as a disconnect between one and the other,” she said.