Options for Mitigating U.S. Contributions to Climate Change Essay
Carbon Cap-and-Trade: A Review of Outputs, Instruments, and Venues
For the past thirty years, the world community has grappled with and begun contemplating the global environmental problem called climate change.
The international community within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) drafted two documents to reduce greenhouse gas emissions causing global warming and changes in the structure of the atmosphere: The Kyoto Protocol (1997) and the Paris Agreement (2016). Options for Mitigating U.S. Contributions to Climate Change Essay Kyoto Protocol (Treaty) drafted in 1997 was the first international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions causing global warming and changes in the structure of the atmosphere. Its commitment period will end in 2020 and from onward, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change 2015 will come into effect. Both the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement took place under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Options for Mitigating U.S. Contributions to Climate Change Essay
The U.S. is not a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol, and in 2017, the United States withdrew from the Paris Agreement, which focused on strengthening the global response to the threat of climate change and strengthening the ability of countries to deal with the impacts of climate change.
Even though the U.S. is not a signatory to either agreement, cities, states, and the federal government have been taking steps to mitigate climate change. In 2009 the U.S. EPA announced requirements about greenhouse gas emission reporting, and the Obama Administration has been advocating the implementation of a cap-and-trade approach to reducing emissions and the United States Climate Alliance was established as a bipartisan coalition of governors committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement. Options for Mitigating U.S. Contributions to Climate Change Essay
In 2019, under the Trump Administration, the EPA passed the Affordable Clean Energy rule, which would allow states to set their own emissions-reduction goals, focusing on the use of energy-efficiency technologies at individual power plants rather than requiring the use of more aggressive greenhouse-gas reduction methods such as capturing and storing carbon emissions. Options for Mitigating U.S. Contributions to Climate Change Essay
Directions
For this assignment, you are to undertake the responsibilities of a policy strategist and write a 3 – 5-page informative memo that will inform your client (an executive of a company, a non-profit, an administrative agency, etc.), about the implications of different approaches for the U.S. to implement and address climate change. Options for Mitigating U.S. Contributions to Climate Change Essay
This memo should be written in memorandum format:
From: You
To: Client of your choice
Subject: Options for Mitigating U.S. Contributions to Climate Change
In the memo, include four sections: a background section, a policy process analysis section, an ethical discussion arguments section and a policy recommendation section. Begin each section by offering your client a foundational understanding of the issue before moving into details and analysis. You can assume that your client is intelligent enough to understand what you are explaining but not informed enough to be conversant about it already. Options for Mitigating U.S. Contributions to Climate Change Essay