Another thing that frustrates me about the “look at china” people regarding pollution, is that CO2 emissions per capita for the PRC are 7.38 tons.
Lots of countries have higher emissions per capita, eg: Germany (9.44), USA (15.52), Canada (18.58), UAE (23.37). source
Also, people fail to consider the cumulative emissions of decades of polluting already industrialized countries have been doing. Countries like China are rapidly industrializing, and “the west” can’t expect countries to increase their living standards without some years of increased emissions.
A just approach would be that industrialized countries would fund a more environmentally friendly development in these countries, no strings attached. But of course they won’t even sufficiently fund environmentally friendly development in their own countries.
Also since China and the global south build a lot of the west’s goods they are basically just spreading the per capita pollution of the west around the world.
Another thing that frustrates me about the “look at china” people regarding pollution, is that CO2 emissions per capita for the PRC are 7.38 tons. Lots of countries have higher emissions per capita, eg: Germany (9.44), USA (15.52), Canada (18.58), UAE (23.37). source
Also, people fail to consider the cumulative emissions of decades of polluting already industrialized countries have been doing. Countries like China are rapidly industrializing, and “the west” can’t expect countries to increase their living standards without some years of increased emissions.
A just approach would be that industrialized countries would fund a more environmentally friendly development in these countries, no strings attached. But of course they won’t even sufficiently fund environmentally friendly development in their own countries.
Also since China and the global south build a lot of the west’s goods they are basically just spreading the per capita pollution of the west around the world.