Believe it or not, western countries have reduced carbon emissions over the last ~15 years, in both absolute and per capita terms (despite a growing population). The only countries that are growing their carbon emissions are developing countries; mainly China, India and Russia.
China is particularly troubling since they make up 28% of all emissions (US is 15%) and they have both a growing population and growing emissions per capita.
And it's not that China is producing emissions during manufacturing goods the entire world consumes. Take a look at "China: Consumption-based accounting: how do emissions compare when we adjust for trade?" and you'll see ~90% of their emissions are for consumption [2]
> Annual consumption-based emissions are domestic emissions adjusted for trade. If a country imports goods the CO₂ emissions needed to produce such goods are added to its domestic emissions; if it exports goods then this is subtracted.
2018 had 8.96 bn carbon tons in consumption out of a total of 9.96 bn total tons (~90% consumption)
The good news is that China is good at collective action. The bad news is, they're China.
[0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/183943/us-carbon-dioxide...
[1] https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/each-countrys-share-co2-emi...
[2] https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/china
China is particularly troubling since they make up 28% of all emissions (US is 15%) and they have both a growing population and growing emissions per capita.
And it's not that China is producing emissions during manufacturing goods the entire world consumes. Take a look at "China: Consumption-based accounting: how do emissions compare when we adjust for trade?" and you'll see ~90% of their emissions are for consumption [2]
> Annual consumption-based emissions are domestic emissions adjusted for trade. If a country imports goods the CO₂ emissions needed to produce such goods are added to its domestic emissions; if it exports goods then this is subtracted.
2018 had 8.96 bn carbon tons in consumption out of a total of 9.96 bn total tons (~90% consumption)
The good news is that China is good at collective action. The bad news is, they're China.
[0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/183943/us-carbon-dioxide...
[1] https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/each-countrys-share-co2-emi...
[2] https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/china