Progress towards a new global climate agreement has been slow. SPIEGEL spoke with China's head climate negotiator Yu Qingtai about Western responsibility for CO2 emissions in China and frustration in the developing world. SPIEGEL: China is now the largest emitter of CO2 in the world. Is China recognizing its responsibility for climate change? Yu Qingtai: We take climate change very seriously, but don't forget that we are 1.3 billion people. The difference in per-capita emissions between China and the developed nations is still huge. You can't tell Chinese people that being born in China means being allowed just 20 percent or 25 percent of the CO2 emissions allowed somebody born in Europe.
Progress towards a new global climate agreement has been slow. SPIEGEL spoke with China's head climate negotiator Yu Qingtai about Western responsibility for CO2 emissions in China and frustration in the developing world.
SPIEGEL: China is now the largest emitter of CO2 in the world. Is China recognizing its responsibility for climate change?
Yu Qingtai: We take climate change very seriously, but don't forget that we are 1.3 billion people. The difference in per-capita emissions between China and the developed nations is still huge. You can't tell Chinese people that being born in China means being allowed just 20 percent or 25 percent of the CO2 emissions allowed somebody born in Europe.
The difference in per-capita emissions between China and the developed nations is still huge.
China's per capita emissions are now at about 75% of France's. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
China's CO2 emissions are (according to nationmaster), 2.66 tonnes per person per year. France's are 5.99, and the US' a whopping 19.48 The brainless should not be in banking. — Willem Buiter
Bloomberg The U.S. released 20.9 tons of emissions from oil, natural gas per person in 2008, compared with 5.2 tons in China, which has about 1.3 billion people, the BP data show.
The U.S. released 20.9 tons of emissions from oil, natural gas per person in 2008, compared with 5.2 tons in China, which has about 1.3 billion people, the BP data show.
It's hard to find stronger evidence that the Chinese, no matter what they're saying, doesn't give a rats ass about CO2. Peak oil is not an energy crisis. It is a liquid fuel crisis.
interesting reflection on obama, who has done the same thing with respect to lefty desires for more human rights, social fairness.
both have reality's headlights bearing down on them. ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
