China Passes U.S. to Become Largest CO2 Producer
The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL) released a report last week stating that China now produces more carbon dioxide than the traditional front-runner, the U.S. The NY Times carried a great post on the report. According to their news release (also here, but this server seems to be unreliable):
“With an eight percent national increase, China’s carbon dioxide emissions contributed the bulk of last year’s 3.1 percent global rise in CO2 emissions, according to a statement released on the last day of a United Nations conference on climate change in Bonn, Germany.”
Specifically, the report pegs China’s contribution at:
“…about a quarter share in global CO2 emissions (24 percent)…”
It gets worse…
“Cement clinker production was a major cause of the emissions, and with an increase of 10 percent in 2007 China now accounted for about 51 percent of global cement production, said the PBL.”
…Rebuilding after the earthquake in Sichuan province will result in an even greater demand for cement.
While alternative energy is a hot topic in the west right now, we don’t hear as much about alt-energy developments in China. I don’t know whether this reflects a lack of progress, or simply a dearth of reporting. In any event, I’m starting to work with some other folks interested in increasing alternative energy production in China. I’ll report more as I learn more.
Technorati Tags: China, Alternative Energy, Solar, Wind Power, BioFuel
If only they could make it into an Olympic event.
But in defense of China and lots of other nations with CO2 pollution problems, it’s difficult to expect developing countries to worry about alternative energy when they’re still worrying about getting energy enough to fuel their growth. The wealthiest and most established countries knew this would happen, that is, if their leaders know how to read. So they should have factored that into their own plans.
Comment by JT — 2008.6.20 @ 16:50