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China’s carbon pollution now surpasses all developed countries combined

4 points by awb 6y ago

adrianN 6y ago
We're still firmly on the path to a 3°+ world. Global emissions are still going up. Politicians are still not acting with the urgency needed, not just in China, but pretty much everywhere in the world. Here's an overview: https://climateactiontracker.org/ https://climateactiontracker.org/
- alexnewman 6y ago
  But you get the article points out, that there’s basically nothing anyone but china can do? Hasn’t USA per capital emissions been going down for a decade. Maybe the answer is only the USA and Europe are acting with urgency. In the USA it’s almost all the private sector. In Europe the public sector. Now if we could just get reasonable government support for nuclear in the west, if only to out of fear of china, we’d be miles ahead of the rest of the world.
  - timuzhti 6y ago
    I don't know about you but this graph does not say "urgency" to me: https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/usa/ https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/usa/ Nuclear is not cost-effective or anything-effective when reactors are taking over a decade to build.
  - adrianN 6y ago
    Nobody is acting with urgency. Acting with urgency would mean a Manhattan Project level of effort where you pump in two percent or so of GDP into decarbonization. Instead we're still procrastinating goals to the n+1-th legislative period.
    - alexnewman 6y ago
      No, private industry in America has gotten the message and America is decarbonizing at a rapid rate. Alas due to china decoupling they will rely more and more on coal especially out of n Korea.
      - timuzhti 6y ago
        What rate do you consider rapid, because I really don't see it.
bingbong70 6y ago
China has less carbon pollution per capita than the US. Not sure why we would measure pollution any other way... Does each US/EU/German/Japanese person have more right to pollute than a Chinese person? I think not. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341152486/figure/fig1/AS:944819811659779@1602274005634/The-evolution-of-per-capita-CO2-emissions-for-selected-countries-Data-source.png https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341152486/figure/fi...

4 points by awb 6y ago

We're still firmly on the path to a 3°+ world. Global emissions are still going up. Politicians are still not acting with the urgency needed, not just in China, but pretty much everywhere in the world. Here's an overview: https://climateactiontracker.org/ https://climateactiontracker.org/

alexnewman 6y ago
But you get the article points out, that there’s basically nothing anyone but china can do? Hasn’t USA per capital emissions been going down for a decade. Maybe the answer is only the USA and Europe are acting with urgency. In the USA it’s almost all the private sector. In Europe the public sector. Now if we could just get reasonable government support for nuclear in the west, if only to out of fear of china, we’d be miles ahead of the rest of the world.
- timuzhti 6y ago
  I don't know about you but this graph does not say "urgency" to me: https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/usa/ https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/usa/ Nuclear is not cost-effective or anything-effective when reactors are taking over a decade to build.
- adrianN 6y ago
  Nobody is acting with urgency. Acting with urgency would mean a Manhattan Project level of effort where you pump in two percent or so of GDP into decarbonization. Instead we're still procrastinating goals to the n+1-th legislative period.
  - alexnewman 6y ago
    No, private industry in America has gotten the message and America is decarbonizing at a rapid rate. Alas due to china decoupling they will rely more and more on coal especially out of n Korea.
    - timuzhti 6y ago
      What rate do you consider rapid, because I really don't see it.

bingbong70 6y ago

China has less carbon pollution per capita than the US. Not sure why we would measure pollution any other way... Does each US/EU/German/Japanese person have more right to pollute than a Chinese person? I think not. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341152486/figure/fig1/AS:944819811659779@1602274005634/The-evolution-of-per-capita-CO2-emissions-for-selected-countries-Data-source.png https://www.researchgate.net/publication/341152486/figure/fi...