greatest polluter of air via coal
Cue the usual apologists saying “but per capita...” as if that makes the slightest difference
Cue the usual apologists saying “but per capita...” as if that makes the slightest difference
One simple way to see this is to consider what would happen if China were to split up into 100 separate smaller countries, each with the same per capita emissions as before.
Under a per country measurement, you get the absurd result that emissions have massively improved, even though the amount actually emitted into the atmosphere has not changed at all.
Again, irrelevant. The only thing that matters is the emissions under control of any one government. There is no realistic probability of China breaking up so that is a complete red herring.
China’s government has made the policy decision to increase its emissions and I wonder if everyone will be happy when “per capita” they match much less populated countries. It isn’t required under the Paris treaty to take any action for 10 more years by which time “per capita” it will vastly outstrip any Western country, both in absolute terms and “per capita”.
Looking at it “per capita” is just the politically correct version of climate denial.
Why is this the case? Global warming does not care about the number of governments in the world.