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Talk to the global leaders in fleet management, vehicle tracking and personal safety
At the conference countries are classified as either Annexe 1 or 2, which is the fancy name for developed and developing countries. Under the current protocol only the developed countries have to set aside part of their annual GDP to developing and putting in place sustainable technologies, as they already have adequate infrastructure and investment in their countries, thus allowing them to channel funds elsewhere.
Inconsistencies in this ranking of countries cause problems. For example, China (Annexe 2) is the largest contributor to global CO2 emissions, closely followed by the USA (Annexe1). These are two of the world’s superpowers and the US believes China should also be penalised financially. China’s argument against this is that looking at per capita emissions China is close to the bottom of the table and the US is highest by far.
This is an example of one of the many problems that has to be overcome in the upcoming talks, if we hope to have some legislation governing emissions in the future.
What can be expected from COP17?
It is going to be interesting. I believe that the Kyoto protocol agreement will be extended for another 2-4 years which will allow time to put together a new agreement, or extend the current one, but with new emissions targets. There is going to be a lot of pressure on China and the United States to come up with some kind of resolution, in order for the process to go forward.
How will this affect us?
Any kind of resolution that is reached will mean the reduction of green house gasses. This is done through putting emissions caps on businesses. If a business goes over this cap they will be liable for a fine. This will target the industries that are responsible for large amounts of emissions. The road transport industry is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. At MiX we realise this. We already offset our own emissions through one of our own solutions, MiX COI and we are also continually looking for new ways to reduce the companies impact on the environment.
These talks are vital to the continuation of some sort of legislation that governs emissions, with out this the world is in some serious trouble, so let’s hope for the best.
Brendan Buzer is a Product Manager at MiX Telematics International, based in South Africa. He is passionate about the outdoors and the environment and hopes to convey his enthusiasm for this subject on to others. Follow him on Twitter at @brendanbuzer.
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