The Daily debate: Should climate laws be tougher?

Each year, Earth Day is celebrated on the 22nd of April. On this day, people from all around the world come together to protest for our planet. As most people know, our Earth is currently suffering from climate change, a condition caused by us humans emitting too much carbon dioxide. CO2 is a greenhouse gas which, when too much is emitted and trapped in the Earth's atmosphere, causes the Earth to overheat resulting in much more frequent droughts and heat waves. So what are we doing to help? This is a question that most people are asking and the answer is always "not enough". Nowadays, it is often a choice whether you want to help the environment or not, and if you do decide to buy environmentally friendly products, they are usually more expensive than the conventional ones. This is why, when given the choice, most people buy plastic instead of paper and other environmentally friendly packaging.

One way for companies to be more environmentally friendly is for them to buy carbon credits. By purchasing carbon credits, companies contribute to the protection and restoration of forests and marine ecosystems. What not to like? Carbon credits also allow companies to emit a certain amount of CO2. The more carbon credit they buy, the more CO2 they are permitted to emit. This system was created to encourage companies to reduce their emission as they can trade any unused and therefore unneeded credits. By introducing tougher climate laws, this process could be accelerated and therefore changes could be made before anything worse happens to the Earth.

Also, the government is publishing a lot of ideas for helping the environment but hardly any have been put into place. For example, have you noticed how the government put out on the news and many social media platforms that by 2030 all cars sold will be electric? You probably have. According to motorway.co.uk (https://motorway.co.uk/sell-my-car/guides/2030-electric-car-switchover#:~:text=the%20ambitious%20new-,timescale,-as%20part%20of), this 2030 deadline has now been extended by 5 years. This change in deadline happened almost silently and was not widely publicized on social media platforms; it changed without most people knowing. The few people who have noticed the change, however, are all asking themselves why? Why change the deadline? Are we still putting the Earth’s best interest at heart? And most important of all, do we need tougher climate laws?

All over the world, countries are making changes to society and the way they live for the better of the planet, but is it enough? I believe that if the whole earth works together we can reduce carbon emissions but for that to work we would need everyone (the whole population) on board. If we introduced tougher climate laws, it could lessen pollution and also raise awareness to the importance of our earth’s situation. People would hopefully start taking more action and changing their ways of life to benefit the Earth. If it is a law, then people will have no choice but to follow it.

The Earth needs the help of us humans. There’s no doubt about that. So, we need to start taking more action before it’s too late. The most obvious path to improve our planet’s health would be to introduce tougher climate laws. This is something most people have protested for this year. However, the government knows why it is not paying attention: there is another side to the debate...

Introducing new and tougher laws now, will almost certainly not go down well with businesses that make their money in a non-environment-friendly way; they would be angry as they would lose a lot of money on changing for the better. If the big companies don't wholeheartedly agree with the laws, then it is most likely that the majority of the public will follow their lead. This could then lead to the country falling into arguments which could then lead to wars, and that would be horrible for everyone.