About 9 pounds of CO 2 are released with each gallon of gasoline burned in a relatively fuel-efficient car. The stakes are high for the petroleum and coal industries, which provide most of the energy that powers the world economy. Some of the solutions proposed to reduce emissions include energy rationing or a carbon tax to discourage use. This issue is cloaked in immense and perhaps impossible complexity. To have a complete scientific understanding of practically every earth system and its interactions, and then to work all this data into computer models in order to make predictions on global temperatures five to 100 years later is enormously difficult.
Mankind has enough problems just predicting tomorrow's weather.
Although some 160 nations may sign the treaty, emission reduction requirements will only apply to 34 developed nations. Ultimately if the U.S. decides to move beyond voluntary and practical approaches and mandates national GHG reductions, a common sense approach will be necessary. Since this is a global issue, it requires a global response. Since GHG emissions from all sources mix in the upper atmosphere, a credit and trading program for greenhouse gas emissions makes a lot of sense. Countries or companies that reduce their emissions beyond a set quota would be able to sell credits to other companies that need them.