Presenter(s): Emma Palen − Earth Sciences – Environmental Geoscience Track
Faculty Mentor(s): Ronald Mitchell, Sarah Crown
Poster 176
Research Area: Social and Natural Science
Climate Change mitigation is discussed globally by groups of countries that have chosen to bond together. Preliminary research was conducted to identify which countries were considered individualistic and which were considered to be more community-based. For the purposes of this research, the Geert Hofstede model was used to categorize these countries into one or the other. The question that is addressed in this paper is are countries with individualistic culture less committed to climate change mitigation efforts? Policy makers are interested in this question because Climate change is an imperative issue that should be taken seriously and one of the first steps is identifying why certain countries have less commitment. The methods used to analyze this question included looking at the countries CO2 emissions 10 years before and 10 years after the Kyoto climate change agreement. It is expected that those countries who are identified as individualistic will be less committed to mitigating Climate change and this will be shown with no change or an increase in their CO2 after the Kyoto agreement. Those who demonstrate a more community-centered culture will have lower CO2 emissions after the agreement displaying their commitment to mitigating the issue. The primary results indicate that individualistic countries are less committed to climate change mitigation.