WTO’S BALI ROUND OF  DDA

(DOHA DEVLOPMENT AGENDA)

The WTO came into existence on 01-01-1995 replacing the 47 year old GATT (GENERAL AGREMENT ON TRADE AND TARIFF).  WTO is an international body. The agenda of the WTO is to develop multinational trade by reducing tariff’s across goods and services. They also aim at removing all the tariff barriers.

The DOHA developing round was called DDA started in 2001 and by the present BALI round it was in its 12^th year of existence.  

Since 2008 talks were on and on regarding many issues including agriculture subsidies.

India is launching a massive food security programme in 2014, which will feed 82crore people @Rs 5/kg .This required a large scale stock piling as well as minimum guaranteed purchase price. But the WTO rule says that farm subsidies cannot exceed 10% of the production .Though all the developed nations were opposing fearing that India may distort world food trade through exports of cheap trade.  After a lot of yes and no’s, US said yes for the next 4 years but the Indians were so eager that they refused the four year peace clause.

Finally thinking that the whole round may go down the drain, everyone agreed to give India a indefinite freedom. And we received a green flag for the food security bill.

Hence on the 6^th December Bali round was declared successful.

So, Indians thumps up hoping for the best that this allowance may bring another wave of development in India and help many people to find a better living.     

Global Warming & Climate Change

From the time, i started growing up and used to think that why we write essays on it and i use to take it lightly that it might be a process and bla-bla-bla...  Bt today i understand the severity of the topic and hence realise the importance of the topic.

In order to understand Global warming we need to have a quick review about the process, how it takes place? , what are its causes? etc... In simple words, it is the rise in average earth’s temperature & oceans from the 19^th century & its projected continuation. As we know that the average earth temperature is around 15˚ C (as per NASA).In the past 100 years a rise of 0.8˚ C has been recorded in the earth’s atmosphere.

The two big reasons are:

(1)           FOSSIL FUEL BURNING

(2)           DEFORESTATION

They are all increasing the concentration of GHG’s (Green house gases) in the atmosphere.

GREEN HOUSE EFFECT & OZONE LAYER DEPLETION

The question arises that What is a GHG???

A GHG is a gas in a atmosphere that absorbs the radiation within the thermal infrared range.

The top GHG’s are:

(1)           Water vapour

(2)           Carbon di oxide

(3)           Methane

(4)           Nitrous oxide

(5)           Ozone

GREEN HOUSE EFFECT

It is the process by which thermal radiation from a planet is absorbed by the atmospheric GHG, and is re-radiated in all directions. As a result the Average surface temperature goes up. Fossil fuel burning & Deforestation lead to maximum carbon emission. We know that earth has its own mechanism control for lakhs of years. It ensures that carbon-di-oxide level never grows than the limit (300 ppm), but this limit has now been reached. Hence we need to think about it.

OZONE LAYER DEPLETION

The continuous decrease of 4% p.a in the ozone volume and a huge hole over the polar region is referred as ozone depletion..  Causes include displosion  by CFC’s. Many of the international bodies have been formed in working. Many of the treaties have been singed such as the MONTREAL PROTOCOL, KYOTO PROTOCOL., and many...

IMPACT ON HUMAN SOCIETY

Earth & its hospitable environment is our biggest asset. We cannot take dangerous bets on it. Since the developing nations wants to be developed, the developed nations need to reduce the carbon emission.

THE ROAD AHEAD

India & China demand US must practise and understand   the severity of the matter & take the lead in carbon emission reduction. R&D is now needed for the control and its solutions.

We from our side should also start taking measures for protecting our environment and keep it as it is for the future generations, so that they can also enjoy the resources.

As much as possible we should reduce the emission of CFC’s and other harmful gases. Next 40-50 years would decide that the ball will be in whose court...

PERHAPS, NUCLEAR ENERGY & GEO-ENGINEERING WILL BE THE FINAL SOLUTION.