Amazing technologies and developments took place in a very short span of time. Along with these developments, energy requirements also grew high and the use of fossil fuels increased. However, such hapless use of energy has left traces of environmental degradation which everyone should address, not in the future, but now.
Since, we learned that we could use the fossil fuels readily found around us as a means of generating power, which in itself leads to so many other applications, we have not looked back. However, it is true to say that we are now in a position to realize what this heady growth has meant to us in terms of potentially catastrophic climate change caused by our actions.
We never realized in the past decades that we were too reliant on fossil fuels until we felt the negative impacts of greenhouse gases at the present time which are largely caused by energy generation. We now realize that we must do something to severely curtail this problem and greenhouse laws are now being introduced to cut down on emissions of greenhouse gases.
Greenhouse laws recognize that carbon dioxide and carbon dioxide equivalent gases are very dangerous and can cause significant temperature changes and adverse effects on weather and all forms of life. The laws being put in place aim to force the biggest emitters of gases, the largest companies to cut back and to seek alternative measures of energy generation and production.
The UK is one of the very first countries to implement such mandatory laws, which require the biggest companies to curtail carbon footprint which takes effect by 2010 and 2011. By the year 2050, the British government must have already reached its goal in carbon emissions reduction by as much as 80%.
The greenhouse gas laws being introduced in the UK are basically part of a cap and trade scheme, where the government will set a limit on the total amount of greenhouse gases that are acceptable. As these larger companies will have revealed their previous consumption and emission levels, they will be forced to reduce them proactively, as the government will have put a financial value on each ton of carbon.
Relying on consumers, individuals, and big companies to reduce their carbon footprints out of goodwill is simply not enough. Probably the first step of the government’s initiative in addressing greenhouse gas problems, the Carbon Reduction Commitment will significantly help slow down the negative effects of climate change.
While many scientists and environmentalists have been preaching to politicians and society in general about the problem for some time, it has only been in very recent years that any real action has been taken. The Kyoto Protocol was groundbreaking in the late 90s when many countries agreed that action needed to be taken, but little tangible has been done since then. Mandatory compliance to laws which regulate greenhouse gas emissions will become very common.
The United States is being pressured to take a leading role in this initiave. Until today, debates are still going on in the Congress on some greenhouse gas laws, and doubts have risen as to the passing of these into laws like what has been done in the UK.
