Should developed countries have a greater responsibility for combating climate change?
With the world * (the word IS not required in this case) getting warmer, it is there is controversy regarding whether developed countries should take more responsibility. In my view, developed countries ought to make more effort to save the planet from the threat of climate change due to their historical higher level of contribution to the problem.
One often hears the argument that it is all very well to preach equity but given the planetary emergency the world faces from combat climate change we must put aside the equity principle in the interests of humanity as a whole. Furthermore, developing countries are likely creating more and more * (the word sources didn't quite work here - sources and discharges are not the same thing) fossil-fuel emissions. For example, China is today’s biggest emitter, it is likely to be the case that China may emit twice as much carbon dioxide as the United States. Therefore, some people claim that it is a global responsibility to solve the current problem.
However, what many people fail to realize is that global warming is the consequence of the stock of greenhouse gas emissions (comma not required at this point) which has accumulated in the Earth’s atmosphere as a result of fossil fuel based industrial activity in the industrialized countries of the world. So I would argue that if developed countries do not make significant and absolute reductions in their emissions, there will be a progressively smaller carbon space available to accommodate the development needs of developing countries. In fact, developing countries are doing much more than most developed countries, adopting economical energy methods of growing; (use semi-colons, rather than commas, in lists like this one) conserving energy; promoting renewables, etc. For example, China’s emissions per person are still much lower than the United States’. On average, each Chinese citizen has a much smaller environmental footprint than the average US citizen. In addition, they could do more if they had access to finance and technology from developed countries.
To summarize, countries can contribute according to capacities and resource availability. <em>At the same time, developed countries should be accountable for fossil-fuel-intensive economies since the industrial revolution.</em> Also, developed countries should provide more funds and high-tech support for dedicate to this problem.