USA

28,6% of respondents believe that USA is one of the biggest polluters in the planet.

The second most polluting country in the world

As many countries, pollution in the United States is a big issue. United States, one of the most powerful countries in the world, is the largest emitter of greenhouse gas after China. It represents 14, 4% of the global emission with 6,673 million metric tons (14.7 trillion pounds) of carbon dioxide equivalents.
The United States has taken advantage of the industrial age (during the XIXth century) to grow and develop its economy. In fact, most of the American activities provoke the increase of the main greenhouse gas effect such as using of fossil fuel, the deforestation, the agriculture, livestock farming and the urbanization, the use of chlorofluorocarbons, the emission of nitrous oxide, methane and ozone ... The US belongs to the developed and rich country which are considered responsible for the accumulated emission since the industrialization. They caused the current situation of pollution and global warming. US has always had at disposition the necessary means to apply the measure in favor of the environment. Nevertheless, it hasn’t really acted until now.

May COP21 be an opportunity to US to take into consideration the environmental question?

And in the long-term become environmentally-friendly?

The American culture: A way of living -

What is the impact of the American lifestyle?

The value of American: Individualism

American culture is based on independence, equality, informality and directness. Let’s focus on the first one: independence. Americans strongly believe in the concept of individualism. They consider themselves to be separate individuals who are in control of their own lives, rather than members of a close-knit, interdependent family, religious group, tribe, nation, or other group. The protection of the environment or limited climate change are a global issue which deals with solidarity and collectivism. In fact, the American way of thought can’t easily match with the value advocated by the environment.

The way of consumption

A number of energy researchers have used lifestyle and cultural distinctions as a way to

better understand and explain variations in energy use. "Lifestyle consists of distinctive modes of existence that are accomplished by persons and groups through socially sanctioned and culturally intelligible patterns of action". Along these lines, empirical studies over the past two decades have shown that lifestyle dimensions related to income, education, family size, number of people living in the home, number of hours that a home is occupied, size and type of dwelling, and stage of lifecycle are important indicators of household energy consumption. The way that American consume deeply affects the environment.

This impact can be shown per household as follows: (there are 300 billion Americans)

The United States’ contribution to COP21

"What greater rejection of those who would tear down our world than marshalling our best efforts to save it?" President Barack Obama said in his speech.

This objective confirms the commitment of the United States, under Barack Obama’s presidency, to the fight against climate disruption. It is consistent with the more ambitious long-term objective of reducing emissions by 80% or more by 2050. Obama told the conference that the United States recognizes its role in creating climate change and its role in solving the issue. But he said the agreement should be global in nature, assertive and flexible.

The United States and China reached a breakthrough climate agreement last year, with President Obama announcing the United States should cut emissions up to 28% by 2025 comparatively to 2005 emission ( the most emitting year) and President Jingping committing to a national cap-and-trade system on industrial emissions. The agreement between the world’s largest carbon polluters was crucial for laying the groundwork for the Paris talks this year.

Obama decided to fight against the carbon central to achieve the objective. Several measures have been taken to achieve the objective:

The car-maker are enforced to the norms to reduce petrol consumption of cars and trucks for 3 years
Better taking into account the energetic efficiency of building during the building process
The limitation of methane and hydofluorocarbure (HFC), two strong greenhouse gas effect.
“Clean Power Plan: drastically reduce the pollution due to carbon central (-30% by 2030)." It represents the first source of greenhouse gas effect to US.

This project is a sore subject. The Republican Party doesn’t agree with measure. “job-killer” and “open-war against the carbon industry” are words said by the party to qualify the plan. Mitch McConnell warned COP21 against promise impossible to keep.

Previous failures

A look at previous global climate change negotiations illustrates the challenge in achieving this year's goals, especially when it comes to the biggest greenhouse gas emitters. Probably the best-known milestone to come out of a previous conference was the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol, a nonbinding agreement by 192 parties to lower greenhouse gas emissions to 5% below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012. The United States did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol and dropped out of it completely in 2001 and also the Doha Amendment in 2012, and thus did not commit to reducing any emissions pre-2020. Canada dumped it, too, and China, India and other developing countries were exempt from it. It has taken 20 years of U.N. negotiations to reach this attempt at a legally binding global emissions agreement, according to conference organizers.

The consequences in the future (if nothing it’s done): the steep price of the inaction

In the absence of global agreement on climate change, the United States could suffer from economic losses in the range of $ 180 billion by the end of the century because of drought and water shortage. A global agreement on the climate to limit a rise in average global temperature of 2°C could save lives of 12,000 US residents in areas expose to extreme weather phenomena and allow authorities to save some 200 thousand million by 2100. For example, by adapting the sewage system of the cities which run the risk of flood during severe storms. Finally, limiting the effects of climate change would reduce the risk of extreme drought of 40-59% and would save the country’s farming spending between 2.6 and 3.1 billion dollars.