The US promised last month to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least twenty eight percent (28%), as part of a treaty directed at preventing the worsening of manmade climate change. The Obama Administration’s addition to the treaty is expected to be finalized in December 2015 by world leaders. This promise solidifies Obama’s comment made in China last year about a joint United States and China climate deal that helped raise expectations of other nations coming together to help fight climate change.
Many nations are looking to add to this new global treaty but so far only the European Union, Switzerland, United States and Mexico have submitted plans to the U.N. With the U.S. submitting a plan early, the Obama administration hopes it will put some political pressure on other countries to make ambitious steps to reduce their emissions, as well.
White House senior advisor Brian Deese said, “Along with the US pledge, countries that account for more than half of the total carbon pollution from the energy sector have submitted or announced what they will do to combat climate change beginning after 2020. That’s a big deal, because truly global challenges demand global solutions. Climate change is real, it is being driven by human activity, and it is not a problem any one country can solve on its own” (Times Argus, April 01, 2015). Whether you believe in Global Warming or not, actions to curb pollution and responsibly conserve non-renewable resources is heading in the right direction.
It has not been specified what the Obama Administration will do to meet this promise of carbon reduction, but I bet a majority of it will come in the form of tighter emissions standards for the energy sector. While we have already seen a lot of new rules during his presidency, like Quad O, I assume tighter restrictions are in the horizon. Hopefully, we will see regulations that will be attainable with equipment that will be paying for themselves, such as vapor recovery units. These type of solutions seem to be easier to swallow.
Any questions? Don’t hesitate to e-mail our Lead Environmentalist @ Enviro@otacompression.com.