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UnifiedQuantumField t1_jdzecdd wrote

Reply to comment by Inevitable_Syrup777 in The Greenland Ice Sheet is close to a melting point of no return by Vucea

These figures are probably accurate, but they don't tell the whole story. How so?

Consider that much of the emissions from China stem from manufacturing of products that get exported to places like Europe and the US.

tldr; We buy cheap stuff from China and then scold them for the CO₂

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MightyH20 t1_jdzjkza wrote

The outsourcing of emissions hit it's peak at the beginning of 2008. Then the financial crisis hits and the outsourcing of emissions decreased significantly. Currently, China is responsible for their own emissions which is the result of domestic growth and in particular the construction sector.

Similarly, we can argue that "the east" had outsourced emissions in the 1950s to the 1990s to "the west" since the manufacturing happened in "the west". In fact, China's rapid growth was made possible by western companies and products, yet this isn't accounted for today as well.

In reality the outsourcing of emissions is way to complex to attribute it to actual policy making or distribution of emissions on a global level.

Edit, added source:

> That said, these transfers only account for a fraction of the rise in developing country emissions. Which makes sense. In China, roughly 87 percent of the steel and 99 percent of the cement produced is consumed domestically.

https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/4/18/15331040/emissions-outsourcing-carbon-leakage

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