The recent Kyoto meeting taking place in
Montreal, Canada holds a special significance; it reaffirms the commitment of
various nations towards reducing GHG (green house gasses) which are thought to
be the leading cause of the global warming phenomena.
As much
as the treaty has brought to light the affects of GHG it has been unsuccessful
in convincing the United States of America and Australia to join in At this
moment there is too much hype and little action in the right direction.
Profitability and social issues dominate the
agenda, while environmental issues have been put on the back burner. We can
only find a resolve to our current environmental issues if we get the market
involved. This has been successfully demonstrated by the Kyoto protocol, which
has allowed for the formation of the carbon credit market, where carbon credits
are traded just like stocks are traded in the stock market.
At the present moment there is too much too
lose for the United States of America by signing the Kyoto protocol. The US
estimates that it will cost the US economy $400 billion and thousands of jobs
by signing the Kyoto protocol (The Wall Street Journal).
Surely there must be a better way to get the
biggest polluter of GHG involved. There are other issues that are slowing down
the shift towards environmentally friendly technologies or fuels. The biggest
of these issues is the lack of resources. Lack of funding at the grass root
level is hampering the process.
Young entrepreneurs like me find themselves in
a fix when it comes to raising financing for environmentally safe projects.
Resources need to be made available to help support environmental projects.
Other issues that are hindering the process are, high cost of initial
investment (R&D), small market for the products, and a long time frame
needed for the ROI (return on investment).
Slowly though, the realization is setting in
that some drastic measures need to be taken in order to curb the effects of GHG
and other pollutants. Companies such as Chevron, BP, Shell, Toyota and GE are
leading the way to help educate the public, gather momentum and apply indirect
pressure of companies and governments to take green action. The process of
implementing clean technologies to generate green fuel will take years if not
decades to commercialize.
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