Exam Question: Is it fair for the developed countries to expect the developing countries to limit their greenhouse gas emissions? [10 marks]

Global warming is the gradual increase in the average temperature of the earth’ s atmosphere, generally attributed to the greenhouse effect caused by increased levels of pollution due to industrailisation, deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels to generate energy. Developed countries such as North America demand the developing countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This has become an issue for developing countries as they finally have a chance to improve their own economic development like the developed countries had however they are being stopped from development.

Most Economic Developed Countries [MEDC’s] pollute the most however they’re the least vulnerable to climate change. North America emitted between 1000- 1600 million metric tons of CO2 in the year 2000 making them the least vulnerable to climate change. Over the years MEDC’s have contributed to global warming as they were developing themselves however recently they’re slowly contributing less, since the year 2000 the percentage of global gas emissions of CO2 has decreased by 6% over the course of 10 years. As MEDC’s have already developed they have the money to invest in renewable energy resources to generate energy that contributes very little to global warming, investing in renewable energy could increase MEDC’s wealth further by selling the energy generated by renewable resources.
Developed countries want developing countries to limit their greenhouse gas emissions as climate change creates daunting challenges for global public health, Hurricane Katrina reminded people that extreme weather conditions have fatal consequences in the developed world. Furthermore the heat wave across Europe in 2003 suggested that more hot weather could mean more