Is there a future where China uses this as leverage with the rest of the world to put sanctions on the US if we don't transition?
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And did I read the article’s headline wrong or isn’t the article about China actually decreasing their absolute emissions.
Americans (and other Westerners and developed countries) emit carbon to drive SUVs and eat burgers and steak. They tell everyone else to stay poor lest they emit carbon. Then also shame them for needing aid.
I'm glad China's at least making something useful with their emissions.
If everyone could emit each year as much as they wanted the total would go over whatever cap we need to keep it under to prevent catastrophic warming and sea level rise. Since only the total matters to nature then every ton of CO2 one person emits anywhere in the world has exactly the same impact as every ton of CO2 any other person emits anywhere else in the world.
In effect whatever cap we decide on for annual emissions act like a finite consumable for the year that is shared by everyone on Earth.
Unless you can come up with a good argument why some people should have a right to bigger share of that consumable than others, each person should get the total annual emission cap divided by the population Earth. Let's call this amount 1 share.
A government is doing its fair share to address climate change if it can get the emissions of the people under its jurisdiction down to 1 share per person.
Since nature doesn't care where emissions come it is OK if some people use more more than 1 share as long as others use less to balance it. A government just needs to get the average from the people under its jurisdiction down to 1 share per person.