Carlie Wilson
HCOL 185
10/30/12
Climate change is taking place within a rapidly changing world. As the world becomes
globalized, people and places become increasingly interconnected through converging economic,
political and cultural activities. The consequences of globalization play a key role in determining
the future of anthropogenic climate change. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the
effects of developing versus developed countries on global climate change. I will consider the
impact of emissions from both developed and developing countries, the controversy over
limiting emissions in developing countries, the unequal distribution of risk in different countires
from climate change, and the projected effects of globalization on global warming.
The leading emitters of GHGs are China, the United States, the European Union, India,
and Russia. Of the five leaders mentioned above, the only two that are increasing their emissions
at a rapid rate are the two developing countries of China and India (Olivier et al, 2012). This
increase is expected from growing economies as they become industrialized and increase their
energy demands (Global Emissions, 2012). Therefore, globalization also has the potential to
exacerbate climate change by causing more rapid industrialization of developing countries and
from the direct contributions to GHG emissions from large transnational corporations (O’Brien
et al, 2000).
Developed countries have now been attempting to limit their GHG emissions for twenty
years. The three major international meetings that addressed climate change occurred in Rio de
Janeiro in 1992, in Kyoto in 1997 and in Copenhagen in 2009. However, these meetings were
largely failures and most of the goals set at these meetings were never reached. Some progress
was made, including the agreement that global warming is an urgent problem, however overall it
was largely a disappointment that more was not achieved. Some developed countries such as
Germany are making strides to reduce emissions, however developed countries continue to put
huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year (Rowntree et al, 2012).
Although these international meetings are a good start toward global cooperation
regarding anthropogenic climate change, significant problems still remain, such as addressing the
impacts of developing countries. Globalization is causing once remote and isolated localities to
experience rapid economic growth so that they can compete in the global economy. This
industrialization goes hand in hand with increased energy demands and fossil fuel consumption.
The controversy lies in whether developing countries that are making significant
contributions to global GHG emissions, namely China and India, should be treated differently
than developed nations. They believe that it is unfair that they should be expected to adhere to
any admission reduction plan because they are different in structure, character and history than
the developed economies of the US, Europe, Russia and Japan. These developed countries
created the problem in the first place as they were building their economies and establishing
themselves as world powers because of unrestricted GHG emissions (Rowntree et al, 2012).
Developing countries believe that they are entitled to the same opportunity. However, with
China as the leading emitter of GHGs and the earth fast approaching a critical threshold for the
amount of GHG emissions it can tolerate before entering a uncontrollable positive feedback loop,
it is clear that all countries must change their current pattern of fossil fuel consumption whether
they are developing or developed (McKibben, 2012).
Additionally, the majority of developing countries around the world currently contribute
negligible GHG emissions, and yet they are expected to suffer most from climate change. The
risks of climate change are not evenly distributed, and it is predicted that the most vulnerable
areas, (i.e. Africa, small island nations) will experience hardships such as flooding from rising
sea levels, an increase in sever weather and a decrease in food security and water availability due
to changing rainfall and agriculture dynamics (O’Brien et al, 2000).
Developed and developing countries are both contributing to climate change and the
phenomenon of globalization is rapidly increasing industrialization worldwide, which will lead
to even more pollution if preventative actions are not taken very soon. Anthropogenic pollution
is undoubtedly a very serious problem and the magnitude and severity of anthropogenic climate
change will depend on the emission reduction actions taken in the near future by both developed
and developing countries to respond to this problem.
Literature Cited
"Global Emissions." Climate Change. United States Environmental Protections Agency, 14
2012. Web. 28 Oct 2012.
<http://epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/global.html> .
McKibben, Bill. "Global Warming's Terrifying New Math." Rolling Stone, Politics. 19 2012: n.
page. Print. <http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/global-warmings-terrifying-new-math20120719>.
O'Brien, Karen L., and Robin M. Leichenko. "Global Environmental Change." Global
Environmental Change. 10. (2000): 221-232.
<http://afrim.org.ph/AIDLS/archive/files/35ff09c7e47336b9d1c425f1bd9603d5.pdf >.
Olivier, Jos G.J., Greet Janssens-Maenhout, and Jeroen A.H.W. Peters. "Trends in Global CO2
Emissions; 2012 Report." PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency. (2012): n. page.
Web. 28 Oct. 2012.
<http://edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu/CO2REPORT2012.pdf >.
Rowntree, Les, Martin Lewis, Marie Price, and William Wyckoff. Diversity Amid Globalization;
World Regions, Environment, Development. 5th . Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2012.
59-61. Print.