So why does this have any significance for businesspeople in the United States? We start from the premise that climate change is occurring. No dispute about that. There will be significant changes as a result. No dispute about that either. And humans, as is their nature, will respond to the change in their habitat. Likewise, no dispute. In the jargon, there will be adaptation – armoring the shore against rising sea levels, further restrictions on water usage for drought areas, more hurricane-proof building codes, enhanced floodplain analysis – and there will be mitigation – efforts at reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases. For better or worse, the COP meetings set the rules of the mitigation game, and influence responses to adaptation. Although the Kyoto Protocol was not adopted in the United States, it led to the establishment of a billion dollar trading system in Europe on carbon credits. It influenced RGGI and the Western Climate Initiative here. We have written about how the European system is set to impact American air carriers at the first of the year. Down the road, we believe the nations of the world, including the United States, will come together to address climate change. The frameworks that are in place – built by the COP meetings – will inevitably be important in cementing and implementing the mutuality of purpose.
Wylie Donald
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