When I played my role as a part of the European Union, I felt a little like a parent to the rest of the nations and groups. It was difficult to get other groups to cooperate to either give money or vow to do something to better the World’s climate. I also felt like our group gave the most money, and also got the least in return, because the EU already has decently low emissions. Our issues came from the lack of other well off nations to contribute to help change the course that our global temperature is on. I felt like the United States and China should have made a more conscious effort to assist either by lowering their CO2 emissions, by giving money, or both.
At first, I thought that our group and the rest of the groups did more than enough to get the global temperature to where we wanted it to be by 2100. We placed a big emphasis on deforestation and reforestation, while it was actually the peak year and year starting to reduce emissions that made the biggest difference. After I saw that we did not do enough in round one, I knew we needed to take much larger measures to get the global temperature to where we wanted it to be.
After round one, our group decided to give even more money to the groups who needed it, in exchange for us being able to monitor the use of the money. We did not really change anything else, however, because our peak year and declination of CO2 were already at a good level, and our deforestation and reforestation were as well.
The change was prompted by all of the groups seeing that what we did in round one did not do enough to get to the +2 degrees C, which is where we were trying to get as the World for 2100.
I definitely think that emissions can be cut. However, I do not think that developing nations can cut their emissions as much as the developed nations would like them to, but they can do whatever they can to make the world as good off as possible. As long as all nations make it a conscious effort to reduce emissions as much as is possible, emissions can be cut.
The biggest barrier to implementing the proposals is the fact that it costs a lot of money to reduce carbon emissions. Developing nations need a lot of assistance as it is, and reducing carbon emissions would be one of the last things on their mind to spend billions of dollars on. They have more pressing issues within their borders that the money could be used toward.
We can start by changing our ways, then trying to scale upward. A good start would be to walk everywhere you can, and try to carpool or take public transportation whenever possible. Also, we can spread awareness to young people, as they are the ones who will be having to live with these effects. In addition, we could lobby to politicians to try and get a bill passed that reduces carbon emissions in the United States. It is important to educate the younger generation, so they will grow up with habits that are better for our global environment.