University of West Indices, Mona

LANG 6900
Issue Proposal on
The Developed Countries Have A Higher Obligation To Combat Climte Change Than
Developing Countries
By
Modupeola Abayomi
620088065

Founder of the company Microsoft, Bill Gates, once said Climate change is a terrible
problem, and it absolutely needs to be solved. It deserves to be a huge priority. Climate change
is the change in global or regional climate pattern. The largest apparent change noted in human
history occurred during the mid to late 20th century continuing onwards to the present. Scientists
have placed a direct finger to this raid change on the increased levels of atmospheric carbon
dioxide, which is produced by high uses of fossil fuels. Climate Change can be seen as one of the
defining issues of our time (Cicerone & Nurse, 2014). They stated further that in 2012 the
carbon dioxide (CO2) level was 40% higher than it was in 2012 (Cicerone & Nurse, 2014).
The question can now be asked, who is the one to shoulder the blame for the destruction of
Earth?. Is it the countries who are just recently entering the era of burning fossil fuels for
manufacturing or countries who have been financially stable from the exploitation of this
nonrenewable resource for over half a century? If you were to ask the United Nations, according
to their Framework Convention on Climate Change, they would state that developed countries
need to take the first step. The parties at of the said convention event went as far as to say that
they also recognized the need for developed countries need to take immediate action in a
flexible manner on the basis of clear priorities, as a first step towards comprehensive response
strategies at the global, national and, where agreed, regional levels that take into account all
greenhouse gases, with due consideration of their relative contributions to the enhancement of
the greenhouse effect. (United Nations, 1992). Although all countries within the world hold some
degree of blame on the terrible issue affecting the world at the moment, it is my belief that
developed countries are to shoulder some if not majority of the blame.
Developed countries are the biggest emitters per capita. The global emissions of carbon
dioxide (CO2) are the highest from developed countries such as China, Members of the

European union and the United States of America (Olivier, Greet, & Jeroen, 2012). In fact from
the time when the industrial revolution began, economic development has since gone together
with the growth in the consumption of fossil fuels, with more and more coal, oil, and natural gas
being burned by factories and electric power plants, motor vehicles, and households. The
resulting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions have turned into the largest source of greenhouse gases
gases that trap the infrared radiation from the earth within its atmosphere and create the risk
of global warming. Countries of GDPs of 20,000 per capita and beyond have contributed the
highest amount of carbon dioxide in 30 years (Intergovernment Panel On Climate Change, 2014)
and as a result since they have almost single handedly landed us in the environmental wreck we
are now in.
In order for our world to be on environmental stability members of developed country
ought to lead by example. Developing countries need more than theories found in textbooks on
how they should become developed, they need to have already developed countries lead by
example, giving a blueprint as to how they should join the corps of developed countries. The
Enviornmental Minister of India, Prakash Javadekar agrees with this stating: developed nations
must "lead by example" and walk the talk on cuts in carbon emissions and hoped for a "just and
equitable" agreement to limit global warming. (Press Trust Of India, 2015)
Although the majority of the blame of climate change scientifically can be blamed on
developed countries, it can be argued that out of all countries, developing countries hold the
most incentive from correcting climate change and hence for their own economic development
should grab the reigns of their fiscal future by the horns and steer themselves to stability. In fact,
if climate change is corrected, developing countries are avoiding suffering economic losses of
$1.7 trillion per year by 2050 (Rowling, 2015).

Changing patterns of climate have been induced by members of the globe from the
poorest to the most affluent. This is now one of the most life changing issues in the world and all
decisions cannot be made without once factoring it into consideration. Therefore, as a result, it
requires a team effort to restore the earths climate to a stable equilibrium

References
Cicerone, R. J., & Nurse, P. (2014). Climate Change Evidence & Causes . Retrieved March 9,
2016, from
https://royalsociety.org/~/media/Royal_Society_Content/policy/projects/climate-evidencecauses/climate-change-evidence-causes.pdf
Hamilton, K. (2010). Scaling Up Renewable Energy in Developing Countries: finance and
investment perspectives. Retrieved March 9, 2016, from
http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/files/16504_0410pp_hamilton.pdf
Intergovernment Panel On Climate Change. (2014). Trends in stocks and flows of GHGs. Bonn.
Kintish, E. (2009). New Push Focusues on Quick ways to Curb Global Warming. Science
324:5925 , 323a-323a.
OECD. (2014). Cities and Climate Change. Paris: OECD Publishing.
Olivier, J. G., Greet, J.-M., & Jeroen, P. A. (2012). Trends in global CO2 emissions. Hague: PBL
Publishers.
Press Trust Of India. (2015, November 30). Developed world must lead by example, India on
eve of climate summit.
Rowling, M. (2015, November 26). How much will climate change cost developing nations?
Retrieved March 9, 2016, from World Economic Forum :
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/11/how-much-will-climate-change-cost-developingnations/
United Nations. (1992). United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. (p. 4).
United Nations.