A little while ago, I pointed out an article saying that China would soon surpass the United States as the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. Well, some claim that it already did. The Guardian Unlimited reports that:
“according to the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, soaring demand for coal to generate electricity and a surge in cement production have helped to push China’s recorded emissions for 2006 beyond those from the US already. It says China produced 6,200m tonnes of CO2 last year, compared with 5,800m tonnes from the US. Britain produced about 600m tonnes. Jos Olivier, a senior scientist at the government agency who compiled the figures, said: “There will still be some uncertainty about the exact numbers, but this is the best and most up to date estimate available. China relies very heavily on coal and all of the recent trends show their emissions going up very quickly.” China’s emissions were 2% below those of the US in 2005. Per head of population, China’s pollution remains relatively low – about a quarter of that in the US and half that of the UK.”
UPDATE: Some people pointed out that the level of emissions per capita were still quite different in the US and China. That’s entirely right. Here’s a nice map illustrating the level of CO2 emissions per capita around the world:
From this standpoint, the US, Canada, Australia, and Saudi Arabia are the main problem. But this point doesn’t rule out the fact that China needs to anticipate the level of emissions per capita it will reach in the next 20 or 50 years if nothing is done.
In terms of potential solutions, there’s an interesting discussion on The Atlantic Community website (where I found the map above) about the potential of the “polluter pays” principle. You may also want to check former US Labor Secretary Robert Reich’s proposal of a “carbon auction.”
