Durban Climate Change conference and the eco global market
After the Durban Climate Change Conference in December 2011 the global landscape for sustainable energy and investment has subtly altered. The DCCC saw a large scale shift in the political ideology of some globally important nations. Overwhelmingly, the news was good for a sustainable future. According to news from the carbon market there are two distinct groups now vying for a different outcome.
In the past, the USA has always failed to back the Kyoto protocol and has sided with India, China and Canada historically. Meanwhile, Europe occupies the other camp and represents a range of smaller countries. The aim of the first group is to continue polluting as long as possible, largely due to the scale of their economies. Meanwhile, the European Union sits on the other side and sees the need to ratify the Kyoto protocol and reduce carbon emissions as quickly as possible to avoid problems in the future. After the Climate Change Conference, commentators on the carbon market confirmed that this split was evident. However, there was a major upheaval in this historical situation.
China, likely to be the biggest economy in the world within five years and the largest polluter in the world, signalled a willingness to shift the major focus of their sustainability outlook. Although both China and Russia remain using cheap and dirty fossil fuel power, there are signs of a shift in energy policy. Durban saw sustainable development groups attract good attention, and China showing readiness to join the fight against climate change. This was one of the most important aspects of the Durban Climate Change Conference.
At this stage, China and the USA are both economies linked to fossil fuel pollution, and in the past there has been an uneasy alliance between the two countries. The scale of fossil fuel pollution, and the extent to which both economies are trapped by it, is unimaginable. However, for the first time at Durban, China took a stronger stance on pollution. No clear policy change at this stage, but of China did decide to take a stronger stance on pollution, both India and the USA could be forced to follow suit.
So, even though Durban didn’t yield any substantive progress, the signs are set for a massive global shift in energy policy in the coming decade.
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