Our trade with China is a major cause of carbon emissions:
The full extent of the west’s responsibility for Chinese emissions of greenhouse gases has been revealed by a new study. The report shows that half of the recent rise in China’s carbon dioxide pollution is caused by the manufacturing of goods for other countries – particularly developed nations such as the UK.
Last year, China officially overtook the US as the world’s biggest CO2 emitter. But the new research shows that about a third of all Chinese carbon emissions are the result of producing goods for export.
The research, due to be published in the scientific journal Geophysical Research Letters, underlines “offshored emissions” as a key unresolved issue in the run up to this year’s crucial Copenhagen summit, at which world leaders will attempt to thrash out a deal to replace the Kyoto protocol.
The Chinese, of course, are helpless in this. They don’t know how to use any fuel but coal to keep their power plants going. They’re unable to resist our blandishments and incapable of producing the material goods we so selfishly buy from them without producing enormous carbon emissions. And, of course, if millions of Chinese starve to death because of a lack of foreign trade, that’s just the price they’ll have to pay.
