Kevin Gallagher writes:
To kick off 2011, the Obama administration has had the audacity to file suit at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against China’s policies to build green technologies.
This action is deeply flawed. The US should not try to beat China down, but should pursue its own green jobs policy and reform the WTO, so the rules allow countries to combat climate change.
The United States and China are the world’s largest emitters of the greenhouse gases. Together and separately, each nation should be doing all it can to develop clean technologies to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
That is not how the Obama administration has seen it. Repeatedly, at United Nations climate negotiations, the US has said that it will do little to combat climate change unless China does. Moreover, the US has stated it will not provide any financial assistance to China to help reduce emissions. With no US support, China was left to its own devices.
Fortunately, the government rose to the challenge. In 2009, China added more wind power than any other country, including the United States. China already has the largest solar thermal capacity in the world and now leads the world in installed renewable energy capacity.
As if things are not bad enough, with the new “Reps” in the congress not even believing in climate change, and the disgraceful waste of the US way of life. I remember thirty years ago the suggestion that the US and others should help China to avoid the wasteful ways of the US energy use, so they could go straight to newer, cleaner technologies, but that never happened. The USA is full of “individuals” who care only for their individual needs and wants, but the planet has no importance except as a resource for their excessive demands.