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.
Visit My sitehttp://www.careerpath.cc
Manik Thapar (MBA)http://www.careerpath.cc