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How do you figure China is an exemplar for worst emissions? They emit less per capita than the US today as well as historically. They are investing $450 billion

by drekk 3y ago

How do you figure China is an exemplar for worst emissions? They emit less per capita than the US today as well as historically. They are investing $450 billion over the next 15 years to build 150 new nuclear reactors, more than the rest of the world has built combined over the past 35 years. They're a leader in solar and are learning from the recent hydropower shortages they experienced [0]. [0] https://www.chinawaterrisk.org/opinions/what-lessons-do-the-chinese-hydropower-shortages-in-summer-2022-hold-for-the-world/ https://www.chinawaterrisk.org/opinions/what-lessons-do-the-...

brutusborn 3y ago
The relative rate of emissions reduction: Chinas emissions accelerate while the wests plateaus. The Chinese don’t emit less because they are good global citizens, it is because they are less wealthy. If emissions per capita is our judge, we should be congratulating all the countries in the worst poverty, since they use the least amount of energy.
blackbear_ 3y ago
> How do you figure China is an exemplar for worst emissions? They emit less per capita than the US today as well as historically. But the Chinese are also poorer, on average, and since poorer people tend to live a simpler life (not that it is a bad thing), emission per capita may not be a good indicator. An alternative is to compare tons of CO2 emitted for each USD of GDP produced, which, using the numbers the world bank [1], turns out to be 0.6 for China and 0.2 for the US (using figures from 2021 for GDP and population, and 2019 for emissions, but the results hold qualitatively). Roughly speaking, this means that the same good/service required, on average, three times as much CO2 to be produced/offered in China compared to the US (using USD to measure the "quantity" of goods/services). [1] https://data.worldbank.org/?locations=US-CN https://data.worldbank.org/?locations=US-CN

by drekk 3y ago

brutusborn 3y ago

The relative rate of emissions reduction: Chinas emissions accelerate while the wests plateaus. The Chinese don’t emit less because they are good global citizens, it is because they are less wealthy. If emissions per capita is our judge, we should be congratulating all the countries in the worst poverty, since they use the least amount of energy.

blackbear_ 3y ago

> How do you figure China is an exemplar for worst emissions? They emit less per capita than the US today as well as historically. But the Chinese are also poorer, on average, and since poorer people tend to live a simpler life (not that it is a bad thing), emission per capita may not be a good indicator. An alternative is to compare tons of CO2 emitted for each USD of GDP produced, which, using the numbers the world bank [1], turns out to be 0.6 for China and 0.2 for the US (using figures from 2021 for GDP and population, and 2019 for emissions, but the results hold qualitatively). Roughly speaking, this means that the same good/service required, on average, three times as much CO2 to be produced/offered in China compared to the US (using USD to measure the "quantity" of goods/services). [1] https://data.worldbank.org/?locations=US-CN https://data.worldbank.org/?locations=US-CN