!2 worst GHG emmitters in the world.
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Russia didn't make the list, I thought they would have been on there. Europe is well represented though.
Europe is well represented and sadly, so is Canada and the U.S.. This is a different position for Canada to be in. Usually, we are sitting up in some smug position looking down on those other heathens who don't see the light. The tables have turned. Will we?
interesting to note that canada is higher than the UK, despite it's smaller population and apparent concern for the environment. maybe just cos of the oil deposits which i am led to believe are rather larger than those in the north sea
Quick quick - send AlBore to Beijing - he has all the answers !!
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=573303
Global warming heads East
China poised to become top emitter of greenhouse gases
By ROBERT COLLIER
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted: March 5, 2007
Far more than previously acknowledged, the battle against global warming will be won or lost in China, even more so than in the West, new data show.
A report released last week by Beijing authorities indicated that as its economy continues to expand at a red-hot pace, China is highly likely to overtake the United States this year or in 2008 as the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
This information, along with data from the International Energy Agency, the Paris-based alliance of oil-importing nations, also revealed that China's greenhouse gas emissions recently have been growing by a total amount much greater than that of all other industrialized nations put together.
"The magnitude of what's happening in China threatens to wipe out what's happening internationally," said David Fridley, leader of the China Energy Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "Today's global warming problem has been caused mainly by us in the West, with the cumulative (carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases) in the atmosphere, but China is contributing to the global warming problem of tomorrow."
Statistics released in Beijing last week by China's National Bureau of Statistics show that China's consumption of fossil fuels rose in 2006 by 9.3%, about the same rate as in previous years - and about eight times higher than the U.S. increase of 1.2%.
While China's total greenhouse gas emissions were only 42% of the U.S. level in 2001, they had soared to an estimated 97% of the American level by 2006.
"The new data are not encouraging," said Yang Fuqiang, China director for the Energy Foundation, a San Francisco organization that works extensively with Lawrence Berkeley scientists and the Chinese government on energy-saving programs. "China will overtake the United States much faster than expected as the number-one emitter."
China's top environmental official admitted Wednesday that the results show the government's environment agenda of the past few years has been ineffective. "Economic growth is still excessive . . . and there is slow progress in restructuring obsolete and backward production capacity," said Zhou Shengxian, director of the State Environmental Protection Administration.
"The new data show that many local officials are more concerned about economic development, about increasing gross domestic product, and see energy efficiency and environmental protection as a lower priority," said Yang, of the Energy Foundation.
In an attempt to force local governments to obey energy-efficiency edicts from Beijing, the government recently announced that local officials' pay and promotion will be judged in part based on their environmental record, not just their economic success. The first evaluation period will be in July.
Beyond the Kyoto Protocol
China's emergence as a global warming polluter has been intensely controversial in international negotiations over climate change.
The Bush administration refused to join the Kyoto Protocol in part because the pact committed only industrialized nations, but not fast-growing poorer nations like China, to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases.
Chinese officials, however, note that the country's per capita emissions are far below those in the West, and they say any move to adopt mandatory cuts now would restrain its economic growth and in effect penalize its 1.3 billion people for being poor. The officials say China must be given the chance to attain the West's standard of prosperity before it will cut emissions.
"It must be pointed out that climate change has been caused by the long-term historic emissions of developed countries and their high per-capita emissions," China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, said last month.
International negotiations have begun over a successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol, and industrial nations and most environmentalists are insisting that big developing nations such as China, India and Brazil commit to reductions.
Facing the future
China's hard line finally may be softening, however.
The Chinese government recently admitted that global warming will dramatically affect China's ability to feed its people. A government report released in January said climate change will cause China's production of wheat, corn and rice to drop by as much as 37% over the next 50 years.
What China needs, many experts say, is help from the U.S. and other Western nations to adopt energy-saving technologies. China's energy consumption per unit of production is 40% higher than the world's average, and about 70% of its energy comes from coal, usually burned in inefficient power plants.
The U.S. Energy Department carries out some technical cooperation with China on issues such as coal, but most forms of U.S. assistance to China have been barred under sanctions imposed by Congress after the 1989 Tiananmen killings in Beijing.
Although Chinese officials say their country should receive foreign grants and subsidies, the Central Bank has the world's highest foreign-exchange reserves, at $1.1 trillion, so most experts say China needs training and technology rather than cash.
http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=573303
Global warming heads East
China poised to become top emitter of greenhouse gases
By ROBERT COLLIER
San Francisco Chronicle
Posted: March 5, 2007
Far more than previously acknowledged, the battle against global warming will be won or lost in China, even more so than in the West, new data show.
A report released last week by Beijing authorities indicated that as its economy continues to expand at a red-hot pace, China is highly likely to overtake the United States this year or in 2008 as the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
This information, along with data from the International Energy Agency, the Paris-based alliance of oil-importing nations, also revealed that China's greenhouse gas emissions recently have been growing by a total amount much greater than that of all other industrialized nations put together.
"The magnitude of what's happening in China threatens to wipe out what's happening internationally," said David Fridley, leader of the China Energy Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "Today's global warming problem has been caused mainly by us in the West, with the cumulative (carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases) in the atmosphere, but China is contributing to the global warming problem of tomorrow."
Statistics released in Beijing last week by China's National Bureau of Statistics show that China's consumption of fossil fuels rose in 2006 by 9.3%, about the same rate as in previous years - and about eight times higher than the U.S. increase of 1.2%.
While China's total greenhouse gas emissions were only 42% of the U.S. level in 2001, they had soared to an estimated 97% of the American level by 2006.
"The new data are not encouraging," said Yang Fuqiang, China director for the Energy Foundation, a San Francisco organization that works extensively with Lawrence Berkeley scientists and the Chinese government on energy-saving programs. "China will overtake the United States much faster than expected as the number-one emitter."
China's top environmental official admitted Wednesday that the results show the government's environment agenda of the past few years has been ineffective. "Economic growth is still excessive . . . and there is slow progress in restructuring obsolete and backward production capacity," said Zhou Shengxian, director of the State Environmental Protection Administration.
"The new data show that many local officials are more concerned about economic development, about increasing gross domestic product, and see energy efficiency and environmental protection as a lower priority," said Yang, of the Energy Foundation.
In an attempt to force local governments to obey energy-efficiency edicts from Beijing, the government recently announced that local officials' pay and promotion will be judged in part based on their environmental record, not just their economic success. The first evaluation period will be in July.
Beyond the Kyoto Protocol
China's emergence as a global warming polluter has been intensely controversial in international negotiations over climate change.
The Bush administration refused to join the Kyoto Protocol in part because the pact committed only industrialized nations, but not fast-growing poorer nations like China, to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases.
Chinese officials, however, note that the country's per capita emissions are far below those in the West, and they say any move to adopt mandatory cuts now would restrain its economic growth and in effect penalize its 1.3 billion people for being poor. The officials say China must be given the chance to attain the West's standard of prosperity before it will cut emissions.
"It must be pointed out that climate change has been caused by the long-term historic emissions of developed countries and their high per-capita emissions," China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, said last month.
International negotiations have begun over a successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol, and industrial nations and most environmentalists are insisting that big developing nations such as China, India and Brazil commit to reductions.
Facing the future
China's hard line finally may be softening, however.
The Chinese government recently admitted that global warming will dramatically affect China's ability to feed its people. A government report released in January said climate change will cause China's production of wheat, corn and rice to drop by as much as 37% over the next 50 years.
What China needs, many experts say, is help from the U.S. and other Western nations to adopt energy-saving technologies. China's energy consumption per unit of production is 40% higher than the world's average, and about 70% of its energy comes from coal, usually burned in inefficient power plants.
The U.S. Energy Department carries out some technical cooperation with China on issues such as coal, but most forms of U.S. assistance to China have been barred under sanctions imposed by Congress after the 1989 Tiananmen killings in Beijing.
Although Chinese officials say their country should receive foreign grants and subsidies, the Central Bank has the world's highest foreign-exchange reserves, at $1.1 trillion, so most experts say China needs training and technology rather than cash.
We can all make somebody's badboy list.'Twould be interesting to see a map of the World's Top Twelve Human Rights Violators or the World's Twelve Most Corrupt Administrations. I'd even like to see a take on the World's Twelve Greatest Slacker States.
We'll all be on one of them eventually.
We'll all be on one of them eventually.
One problem with those. How do you ensure that the measurements are applied evenly when each country has a different criteria for what human rights are. Also, how do you measure corruptness, and slackerness? These are categorical variables, whereas emissions are quantifiable. Even that has to be taken with a grain of salt as the emissions for each country are measured by the state, so likely very little continuity between all of those countries.
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