It is true that there is an increase in carbon emission by India and China due to homegrown consumption and lack of infrastructure. But let’s keep in mind that India’s carbon emissions per capita are still 10 times lower and China’s is half of that compared to the US.A majority of right-wing American politicians are climate change deniers, consider global warming to be a hoax and blame emerging countries like India and China on the rising level of CO2 emission in the world.
During the Obama regime, many reforms were introduced to restrict rising levels of CO2 emission. Restrictions were put on the use of fossil fuel and many subsidies and incentives were introduced to boost the adoption of renewable sources of energy.
But in one fell swoop last month, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order which began the demolition of a wide range of Barack Obama’s policies on global warming and climate change.While the world is planning to reduce dependency on fossil fuels, US has rolled-back incentives that were powering the country’s emerging renewable industry and now has lifted restrictions on the coal industry to create more mining jobs.
Despite numerous benefits, such hostility towards renewables is understandable as there is a profit motive attached to it.
“Led by the oil and gas industry, the energy and natural resources sector regularly pumps the vast majority of its campaign contributions into Republican coffers,” says opensecrets.org, an American website that keeps a track of federal campaign contributions and lobbying data.
“Since the 1990 election cycle, interests from this sector have contributed more than two-thirds of its campaign contributions to Republican candidates. Another big contributor in this sector – and another big GOP supporter – is the electric utilities industry. Less generous, but even more partisan, is the mining industry,” it adds.
