BBC: China building more power plants

[arenean]

BBC News article on China building 2 new coal power plants per week:

China building more power plants

Some interesting quotes:

"All we've done is export a great slice of the West's carbon footprint to China, and today we see the result.Let us not forget that the average Chinese emits just 3.5 tonnes of CO2 per year, whereas Britons emit nearly 10 tonnes and Americans 20 tonnes.

"The West moved its manufacturing base to China knowing it was vastly more polluting than Japan, Europe or the US," he added. No environmental conditions were attached to this move, in fact the only thing manufacturers were interested in was the price of labour.

"This trend kept the price of our products down but at the cost of soaring greenhouse gas emissions. Long term this policy has been a climate disaster.

[Eugene]

1. And one major point: Rich nations must lead by example.

Unfortunately, that's a concept totally alien to the Bushies.

[Nihil]

2. Interesting ...

This article says ...

> the average Chinese emits just 3.5 tonnes of CO2 per year,
> whereas Britons emit nearly 10 tonnes and Americans 20 tonnes.

whereas the Guardian article (via http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=115x100728)
says ...

> But per head of population, China's pollution remains relatively low,
> about a quarter of that in the US and half that of the UK.

?

These figures don't seem to add up?
Did this article mean Chinese producing 5T CO2 p.a.?
Or did it mean that Britons were "only" at 7T and Americans "only" 14T?

:shrug:

[Eugene]

3. Doing the math on the Guardian article, 4 to 1 is approximately correct.

I'd guess that Mr. Ashton misspoke or cited an old number
when he stated the figures for China. The bottom line
is still valid.

WARNING: These are very crude calculations.

5.8 billion tons of CO2 with 300 million people ~= 19.3T / person

- versus -

6.2 billion tons of CO2 with 1.3 billion people ~= 4.8T / person

The numbers work out reasonably close.

[eppur_se_muova]

4. "top climate change official @ UK Foreign Office, John Ashton" is the quotee

How did someone this candid and respectful of the facts ever make it into government? This guy lays the blame squarely where it belongs -- bottom line economic thinking, which totally ignores that the real bottom line is the planet.