The United States and China are the two greatest greenhouse emitters in the world, but the United States population is less than one third of China’s. However, US emissions have reached 25 tons per person per year, while the Chinese emissions per capita are around less than eight tons per year. The US Environmental Protection Agency states carbon emissions mostly come from burning fossil fuels. These fuels are the sources of 88.1% of China’s energy according to Worldbank.org, but it is also the means by which to drive a car or heat one’s home. China may be an incredible source of pollution globally, but in nearly the same size country, a single person can pollute three times more without facing the same international criticism. To live in China means you on average use and pollute a third less than the United States. So, where is the logic in forcing further regulations on the Chinese citizens to curb carbon emissions? Why must the Chinese, who continue to live in a developing nation which requires the environmental and energy space to build infrastructure and innovate, conform to regulations which makes them by law one third as free as Americans?
On one hand, China by the standards of the IMF, the Economist, and the Atlantic, has a lower per capita income than all of the developing world and many developing but on the other hand it already invests more than any other country in renewable energy. China is unarguably a developing country, and so its economy relies heavily on production and exporting, both heavily energy-dependent. When it comes to sustainability as well, China expects less than 30% of its energy come from renewable sources by 2020, but the demand for energy is going to increase. To prevent a stagnation of Chinese innovation and production, it must meet these demands. China right now cannot see emissions as a problem to immediately deal with. Economic growth is the priority in order to accommodate the 300 million new citizens planning to live in urban centers by 2050. China needs to be able to access the resources necessary to accommodate growth.
These resources within the next 50 year will come in the form of coal. Julio Friedmann of Lawrence Livermore said, “Solar and wind power are going to be important, but it is really hard to get them beyond 10 percent of total power supply.” Coal is by far the cheapest solution to energy production, costing 2 cents per kilowatt hour while a new wind farm in the area may cost 20 cents for the same result. Because of cheap and new innovations in coal technology such as “carbon capture and storage”, it is still the only sustainable solution to accommodate China’s incredibly urban growth. The use of coal, although it is becoming cleaner, still emits carbon, and so to continue to develop economically and invest in coal tech, the burden of lowering coal emissions falls to developed nations instead, which already invest less than China in renewable energy.
