When I played my role in the policy exercise, I felt that I had a direct influence on the cooperation of nations that set aside some economic well being to do what was best for the world. As China, I felt that we had a responsibility as one of the world’s largest populations and economies to make changes that would be beneficial to the environment. After our initial proposal, which I felt good about, calls from other nations and nation blocs to cooperate allowed us to give more to the cause than we would have been willing to on our own. By making our goal to cap emissions 10 years sooner than our initial plan and increasing our rate of decreasing emissions, we joined other nations in making bigger changes sooner. While our plan looks admirable on paper, carrying it out in reality may prove difficult, especially in China. Since China is both developed in many areas and developing in others, the developing areas may begin increasing CO2 emissions as modern conveniences become more available to them. This puts more pressure on the developed areas to begin enacting environmentally friendly changes sooner, and developing technology that would allow the developing areas to enact sustainable growth policies. The cost would be large, but due to the size of the economy, it would not be impossible to commit the necessary funds to protect the environment. Catalyzing change in the United States may prove difficult due to the difficulty of motivated individuals to have much of an effect on the environment. However, companies and governments must lead the changes with technologies and policies that protect the environment and decrease CO2 emissions.
