In Copenhagen, participating countries agreed that the threat posed by climate change is real and that immediate actions need to be taken to reduce warming.
Delegates produced a non-binding treat built around voluntary greenhouse gas reduction targets but failed to establish a “carbon price” or other concrete steps for driving down the CO2 emissions.
That is hardly an encouraging result. However, people should not wait passively for another year and just hope for a better result from Mexico City. In the absence of a binding international agreement, other approaches need to be identified to accelerate research and development and to demonstrate commercial clean energy technologies.
Fortunately, in spite of the political stalemate, important progress is being made. A number of energy companies in the US and China are now working closely to achieve advances in commercial “clean” energy systems.
The fact that corporate leadership is coming from these two countries might sounds quite ironic, since they are the largest emitters of CO2 and both are highly dependent on coal for electricity. However, they are also two of the largest and most dynamic economies in the world and both have highly innovative energy sectors.
Energy conservation and alternative energy are the keys to cutting down the emissions of greenhouse gas, but they are far from enough.