Should the West lead climate action? – Today’s CLIDEMY poll
It’s well known that most of our greenhouse gases hanging around in the atmosphere came from the “west” or more generally, the “developed” countries.
And this should not be surprising. Look at these stats.
Per capita consumption of electricity in the US or Canada is about 3 times that of China, 10 times that of India, and an astonishing 750 times that of a Somalian – an American consumes energy in half a day what a Somalian does in an entire year (how exactly do they live out there?). European countries fare better, but only relative to Canada & the US – they still use considerably more energy compared to the so called “developing” and “under-developed” countries.
Countries such as Somalia might be exceptions and could perhaps bias our analysis, but there is little doubt that the “developed” (the 𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 developed) countries have been consuming energy and emitting CO2 as if there we no tomorrow – and there might not be one if we don’t do something now!
But who is leading the climate tech movement today? Who is setting the agenda and global frameworks? Who is at the forefront of developing the technologies and solutions for climate action? The same countries that got us here on climate – North America & the EU (the exception is China, where a significant amount of climate tech research or at least implementation is taking place on scaling the solutions)
As we contemplate the path to a sustainable future, the question arises whether the developed countries, the super emitters, should be allowed to take the lead in combating climate change.
𝘊𝘢𝘯 𝘴𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘯 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯 𝘢𝘯 𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘴𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮 𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘥 𝘪𝘯 𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘢𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘮𝘦𝘴𝘴 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘶𝘴 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘪𝘵?
So here is today’s poll question for you: 𝐒𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬, 𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 “𝐖𝐞𝐬𝐭”, 𝐛𝐞 𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧?
See my LinkedIn post on this topic
