CEQ NEPA Regulations

The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), which is formed under NEPA, is valuable as it oversees NEPA implementation and procedures.

The energy category, which “focuses on developing clean energy alternatives to oil and coal and securing nuclear waste and nuclear stockpiles”, receives just over 1% of the federal budget (Document E). Efficient, renewable, and clean energy has recently become a major concern for people in general, especially with the spread of global warming awareness. Now, the race is on to minimize United States contribution to climate change, and in order to make a lasting impact, more money must be allocated to related projects. Also part of the Little Guys category is natural resources and environment, with 1% of the budget (Document E). Also in the vein of environmental conservation, this category deals with the essentials of life, a growing concern in the face of climate change and population growth. In order to find more efficient and ‘greener’ methods of transportation, consumption, and waste management, money taken from other categories must also be distributed here. Finally, general science and space, the national park service, and the FBI come into play, totaling $31 billion, $.1billion, and $8 billion respectively (Document E). Amongst these three categories exists great potential for shifts in budget. The FBI, for example, may be able to function with significantly less money, which, if placed in the general science and space category, may allow for technological advancements, and even answers to many of the issues faced nationally and internationally in modern

In recent years , there is a colossal upsurge in the number of environmental concerns with climate change being a pivotal one. Although convergent efforts, be it an individual , company or a government, are made to ease this concern. I think government play a vital role in this regard.

This paper will address the institutionalized road blocks in the United States that have prevented successful climate change action for the last twenty-five years. First, the United States government has become increasingly influenced by and connected to private industries. The private industries and the government work together as partners. While this likely has been beneficial in some ways it has kept out innovation, competition and prevented the implementation of successful health and public welfare regulations. Second, the Banking, Energy and Media Industry are linked together to promote consensually agreed to messages. These industries work together to keep fossil fuels as our major energy source. Third, each industry works together in non-profit

The biggest allies to the climate change are political appointees, such as Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and interest group, such as environmentalists, academic professionals, and clean energy industires. While EPA has influence over the decision from the executive branch, most of the allies do not have a direct influence over agenda setting or alternative specification. However, these groups have closer connection to the general public within states and local communities. The problem is that while these interest groups share similar opinions about the need to address the climate change issue, they have different alternative policies that they advocate. The first step is to push up the climate change higher on the agenda, and working together is essential to achieve this goal. The Senator Smith should contact interest groups in each state to find an agreement among different interest group and to create a coalition.

The meaning and understanding of climate change has been a critical issue of concern to development, scientific and environmental researchers in the world. All over the world, there have been a lot of issues surrounding the causes and impacts of the phenomenon which led to the establishment of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to help assess and provide information about climate change to society (Agrawala, 1998). This essay presents arguments on who is qualified to be an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) expert and who should be qualified. It begins by describing the role of IPCC and its structure including the roles of the authors of the IPCC reports such as lead authors, coordinating lead authors, contributing authors, expert reviewers, review editors and government focal points (IPCC, 2008). It then concludes by arguing in favour of the need for the inclusion of other experts as part of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The document includes definitions, grants conditions, and changes to Titles I thorough XII. This gives better insight to alterations made to the policy when it was reauthorized in 2013.

Congress needs to introduce legislation that increasing environmental study of air compliance, emission control of big industry that are currently using fossil fuels, force automakers to aggressively seek out more alternative sources of renewable energy, and a nationwide study of the US global carbon footprint needs to be reevaluated. The Environmental Protection Agency along with the current administration needs to invest deeper into renewable and sustainable energy projects.

However, this is one of the author’s main themes he aims to educate his readers on; he does so by explaining the process as well as the institutions and politics involved. Rosenbaum states that “an environmental issue becomes and environmental policy as it passes through several policy phases” (38). After a break down and detailed examination of each phase the author helps his reader better understand with an example of the problems and constraints the EPA encountered when enforcing the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (1956). The growth of environmental legislation and the huge role science plays in environmental policy making indicates that environmental management has become an essential part to the government’s policies.

The WWF also fights for saving forests from destruction by working directly with countries protect forests to benefit their communities and using satellite mapping to track illegal logging. With the help of organizations like the WWF and Greenpeace, people are beginning to recognize global warming as relevant problem that must be faced head on. A few ways the United States government could participate in prevention of climate change would be to develop agreements that reduce carbon pollution, combat deforestation, and transition to clean energy

The climate change impacts of greenhouse gases threaten the economic development and environmental quality. These threats indicate that all nations regardless their economic growth should work collaboratively to reduce the emission to a certain level. Hare et al. (2011) argued that “climate change is a collective action problem” thus requires a global coordination from all countries. This indicates that actions from several countries would never be sufficient to address the climate change problem. If a global target to limit warming to 2°C or below is about to achieve (UNFCCC 2010, p.4) a broad range of participation is required (Hare et al., 2011). However, the increasing complexity of negotiation processes is inevitable. Each country will pursue its own interests during the

The challenge facing the global community in achieving an effective response to climate change, is that often the long-term sustainability objective of the global community is weighed against short-term economic objectives of States and found wanting. Article 2 of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), states that the

On December 12 of 2015, 195 countries made history by committing to the first truly global international climate change agreement (Paris Agreement, 2015). This agreement took place in Paris and was adopted under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The outcome of the Paris Conference on Climate Change was described as “revolutionary” (Venezuela) “marvelous act” (China) and as “a tremendous collective achievement” (European Union) that introduced a “new era of global climate governance” (Egypt) while “restoring the global community’s faith of accomplishing things multilaterally” (USA) (Paris Agreement, 2015).

In the face of climate change, reducing greenhouse gas emissions is not only a nation’s essential task but also a global duty. Because of poorly regulated emissions, some greenhouse gases will remain in the Earth’s atmosphere for thousands of years. The mitigation of global environmental emergencies requires uniform international standards and established rules. Therefore, international policy coordination by multilateral agreement is indispensable. This policy paper aims to discuss participation in the Kyoto Protocol Extension is worthwhile and what benefits and burdens await the nation taking part in the efforts towards emissions reduction.

Trying to balance the importance of our environment and our economy is a very difficult job for the leaders of nations around the world. In the U.S., the government has placed regulations in the past on automakers for gas efficiency as well as factories for their emission quality. These regulations have helped on a smaller scale, but more still needed to be done. In 1992, the UN Climate Treaty was signed in Rio de Janeiro stating that as a goal, greenhouse gases in the atmosphere would be kept at "non-dangerous levels". These goals were left unclear, prompting the U.S. government not to endorse a policy of mandating activities that would lead to reduced emissions of CO2 (Singer, 1996). In December 1997, a new agreement