America isn't selfish. It's successful. Rather than trying to drag us down, why don't you support everyone coming up to our standard of living? Most people in the world are trying to do just that. They see us and want what we have. And we're not stopping them.
If you mean that, then you're okay with China and India using coal-powered energy?
In addition, as I presented before, America spends more money and provides more clean energy on a per capita basis than China and every other country in the world except Germany. So we're in the forefront of clean energy and have been there for years. So your basic argument is false.
Not really, it's just that you got a head start on developing countries, or countries with fewer opportunities or fewer means. It's those same countries that you, in earlier posts, wanted to deny the possibility to grow using cheap energy.
It's a good thing that countries like China are bringing the production/investment cost of e.g. PhotoVoltaic cells down, so it will soon be a cheaper alternative to fossil fuelled energy, thus rendering the Coal industry mostly obsolete (except for emergency and backup situations). In fact, China has halted some of the Coal plant construction plans to build more Wind-powered energy generation sites in 2018, because it has become more economical.
But you side-stepped my question. Why does Paris allow China to wait until 2030 to effect changes in their country while the rest of the world starts immediately?
It doesn't. It does do two things, it recognizes the need for China to produce lots of power (more than current Renewables can generate) and it urges China to increase the share of Renewables in their energy generation mix. It also urges China to use cleaner fossil fuel complementary power by replacing old installation by cleaner more modern ones. China doesn't wait until 2030 at all. It is also ramping up Nuclear power stations to meet the rapidly growing power requirements of the country.
China is the biggest contributor of CO2, by far.
Again, China also has the largest population, by far. India is also not small. So a more meaningful metric is to view pollution as produced
per Capita, but you don't like that because it shows how poor a performer the USA is.
China will have the biggest economy in the world surpassing America in just a few years. Yet Paris doesn't hold them to the same standards. Why?
Why, as explained above. All countries that have signed the Paris Agreement are facing different challenges and have different opportunities, and the accord honors those specific possibilities and constraints. It is quite fair, and that's why virtually all countries signed (except Syria and Nicaragua, and now the USA). Trump's remarks about wanting to negotiate a better deal demonstrates that he doesn't understand what he is talking about. The Paris Agreement is not 'a deal', it's a commitment to creating a better future, for all.
The Chinese economy is currently the third largest if you look at GDP (1. USA, 2. The European Union, 3. China), and they have a huge internal market to serve and feed. Clever countries see an opportunity to sell to the Chinese market, other countries try to frustrate the Chinese. These countries have good a memory for who their friends are. They like to sign Trade Agreements with the EU, like Japan just did, and are actively seeking knowledge about conservation of energy use and improving their energy production capacity. The USA signals that they prefer Coal based solutions and trade deals that are better for the USA alone, so the Chinese will look elsewhere for a while. The USA is closing doors that others are opening and are embracing new opportunities. Isolationism is a thing of the past.
Cheers,
Bart
