“Governments must now put words into actions, in particular by implementing policies that make effective progress on the mitigation pledges they have made. That is why my key message is to price carbon right and to do it now.”
IMF Chief Christine Lagarde.
The past few days have been interesting yet distracting. Instead of focusing on finishing my assignments and studying for my finals, I found myself constantly refreshing the Google page with the real-time results for the US Presidential Election.
While many Singaporeans might be unconcerned with international politics, this election could mean a difference to the future of managing climate change. The past 4 years have been chaotic – from frequent trade wars to withdrawal from the Paris Agreement – have impacted the world in one way or another. In the increasingly globalised and interconnected world, the happenings in one part of the world that seems so far away from Singapore can also have an impact on us, as global warming and climate change have no respect or regard for national borders. Everyone has a price to pay regardless of whether we are the ones causing the pollution or not.
Let us first take a look at this short video that summarises the impacts and consequences of the US’ withdrawal from the Paris Agreement under Trump’s leadership:
Summary of the Video
- The US is the second-highest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world behind China, and the Paris Agreement was set to cut greenhouse emissions by countries signing the agreement. The withdrawal of the US could downplay the importance of climate change and international cooperation, where this decision could influence other countries to do the same too, which would hinder the progress of the international efforts to cut emissions. This means that more parts of the world could experience impacts of climate change and increased pollution (including air pollution), decreasing quality of life for living organisms along with a deteriorating state of the environment in general.
So, what does it mean for the climate with Biden’s win for this election? Let us now look at this short video with his promise to committing to climate change causes if he were to win the election:
Summary of Potential Changes
- Proposal to make the US electricity production carbon-free by 2035, and to take gradual steps to help the US reach net-zero emissions by 2050 with the use of increased renewable energy and technology for more energy-efficient buildings and public transportation means.
- Commitment to rectify the Paris Agreement with an attempt to undo the negative environmental impacts done by Trump’s decision to withdraw from it during his term, along with increased cooperation with other world leaders to tackle climate change issues.
- Implementing bills to cut the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HCFCs) to reduce the impacts of potential depletion of the ozone layer.
My Thoughts
While different people might have varying feelings towards Biden’s win, to me, I think that this win could signal a potential shift in the way that the US approach climate change-related topic on the global scale, as whatever their decisions that they made could easily have an impact over how other countries’ receptivity towards such issues. Furthermore, climate change is a global problem that affects everyone in this world. International agreements such as the Paris Agreement can be a good starting point to urge countries to take actions and work together to slow down the rate of global warming and climate change. With this, I think that problems with air pollution generated could be reduced with more enforcement and cooperation of such agreements.
Hopefully, this arrangement would not just make America normal again, but to bring about positive changes to the world to combat climate change together as well.
Disappearing into thin air,
Yuin Chi
Air Pollution 