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Global Issues Confronting a Global Issue
In 1995, 73 percent of the world's carbon
dioxide emissions from human activities came
from developed countries. The United States
is the largest single source, accounting for
22 percent. During the next few decades, however,
90 percent of the world's population growth
will take place in developing countries, some
of which are also undergoing rapid economic
development. If current trends continue, by
2035 developing countries will account for
more than half of global carbon dioxide emissions.
China, which is currently the second largest
source, is expected to displace the United
States as the largest emitter by 2015.
Certainly the greatest challenge to the
global reduction in greenhouse gases is
to develop consensus among the major greenhouse
gas-emitting nations on the steps and timetables
that should be followed to reduce emissions.
Nations approach the greenhouse gas issue
from a myriad of positions.
For example, Germany has called for a 15
percent reduction from 1990 emissions by
2010 and has indicated that it would cut
its greenhouse gas emissions by 25 to 30
percent. But Germany may have an easier
time than other countries in meeting its
ambitious target. In 1990, the selected
benchmark year for emission levels, Germany
had just absorbed the Soviet-style factories
and power plants of East Germany. The relative
inefficiency of these facilities and their
lack of pollution control technologies made
environmental improvements a relatively
easy task. Germany's carbon dioxide emissions
dropped nearly 10 percent from 1990 to 1993.
In England, which relied primarily on coal
for heat and electricity in 1990 and has
since switched many of its facilities to
natural gas, carbon dioxide emissions have
dropped by about 3 percent in the same period.
Russia and the former Soviet republics
are in much the same situation as Germany.
The decline of industrial production since
the fall of the Soviet Union has resulted
in carbon dioxide emissions that are 30
percent lower today than they were in 1990.
Emission reductions in former communist
countries were so dramatic in the early
part of the 1990s that they stabilized world
energy-related carbon dioxide emissions
at 1990 levels through 1994, despite continuing
rapid growth in the developing world.
On the other hand, Japan, which produces
virtually none of the oil it consumes, invested
heavily in higher-efficiency transportation
and other energy technologies after the
oil crises of the 1970s. Electric power
production was shifted largely from oil-burning
plants to nuclear plants. Japan has taken
a more moderate climate change position,
calling for a 5 percent reduction from 1990
greenhouse gas levels by 2012.
Australia is one of the industrialized
countries that relies most heavily on coal
and oil. These fossil fuels account for
77 percent of Australians' energy use. Moreover,
Australia exports significant quantities
of coal to nations along the Pacific Rim
and elsewhere. Australia has taken steps
to improve the efficiency of its domestic
industry -- more that 50 major companies
are partners in a government-backed program
to reduce emissions. But Australia has not
supported binding greenhouse gas emission
targets, proposing instead that individual
nations set specific goals and indicating
that it wants to be allowed to increase