Posted on 06/24/2007 6:07:44 AM PDT by JACKRUSSELL
Beijing -- Developed countries are hypocritical for criticising China's greenhouse gas emissions while buying products from its booming manufacturing industry, the Chinese government said.
The comments yesterday were aimed at defending the country's environmental record after a report said it had become the world's top carbon dioxide emitter.
China overtook the US in carbon dioxide emissions by about 7.5 per cent in 2006, according to the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency's report this week. While China was 2 per cent below the US in carbon dioxide emissions in 2005, voracious coal consumption and increased cement production caused the numbers to rise rapidly, the agency said.
China's explosive re-emergence as a force in world affairs has the country treading a careful line, trying to portray itself as a responsible global power while often pursuing policies at odds with many major industrialised nations.
It has come under increasing pressure to take more forceful measures to curb releases of greenhouse gases but has refused to enforce mandatory emissions caps, saying that as a developing country, economic growth would continue to be a priority.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang called China the "world's factory" and said criticism of its increased emissions was unfair.
"The developed countries move a lot of manufacturing industry into China. A lot of the things you wear, you use, you eat are produced in China," he said at a regular news briefing. "On the one hand, you shall increase the production in China, on the other hand you criticise China on the emission reduction issue."
Wonder how many carbon credits WalMart bought.
What’s amazing to me is why the Chinese think this opinion is viable.
“China is the largest coal consumer in the world, its coal consumption accounts
for one fourth of that of the world total, and half increase of the coal
consumption of the world is contributed by China.”
http://www.iea.org/Textbase/work/2003/beijing/4Youg.pdf
They’re going have to do something or perhaps we’ll just change our trade policies. I just don’t see them growing continually...not with their energy demands.
It's quite simple. On a per capita basis, Chinese emissinos is still lower than the developed nations. Significantly lower.
Compare emissions of the US with Britain. 5.8 billion tons/yr (US) vs 600 million tons/yr (Britain). The British should be critical of America of its green house gases.
Yet at 600 million tons/yr for Britain, it is still higher than China's 6.2 billion tons/yr when measured on a per capita basis. With a population of 60 million in Britain and 1.3 billion in China, that works out to about 10 tons/yr per person in Britain and less than 5 tons/yr per person in China. America's is over 20 tons/yr per person.
So yes, China has a right to be critical of the developed nations and to deflect the burden back onto them.
My point was criticizing the criticism by saying “Well, you buy our stuff” is idiotic.
All nations manufacture and produce goods...and sometimes find buyers to buy them. It’s not about the commerce, it’s about how the products are produced.
If I were in a position to respond, I would tell the Chicoms “You’re right, we’ll pass a law making it illegal to buy Chinese goods until you clean up your act”.
Dumbass Chinese pols.
Yes, you have a point, it isn't the best answer. But then again, China is attacked unfairly (i.e., the per capita output of carbon emissions is rarely, if at all, taken into consideration when criticized). Is not the criticism just as illogical as the retort? So they had a knee jerk reaction to unfair criticism.
Criticism, as usual, came China's way FIRST.
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