EMISSIONS RENDITION

Think of what the U.S., Europe and other developed nations do as "rendition of emissions." China and other developing nations generate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions because of demand from post-industrial nations. To which country does the responsibility for the emissions fall? The consumers, wealthy enough to have options? Or the producing countries, desperate to feed their hardworking, hungry people?

Post-industrial nations demand goods from hungry Asian nations and then criticize them for using the only abundant fuel they have (emissions-spewing coal) to manufacture the goods.

Quarter of China’s carbon emissions due to exports
Jeremy Lovell, October 19, 2007 (Reuters via San Diego Union-Tribune)

WHO
Tao Wang and Jim Watson, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research; New Economics Foundation (NEF)

Sending the dirty work off somewhere else and looking down on those to do it. What else do you call it?

WHAT
Wang and Watson reported on China’s growing GHG emissions and proposed a different way of attributing a nation’s emissions as a method of controlling/reducing them. The report suggested calculating the emissions associated with a nation’s consumption. The “Chinadependence” report by NEF came to similar conclusions.

WHEN
The timing of these reports’ release was likely calculated to have the maximum impact on the discussion of emissions reductions strategies for their post-2012 Phase 3 Protocols at the important December meeting of Kyoto-nations environment/energy representatives.

WHERE
- The December meeting will be in Bali, Indonesia.
- Number 1 destination of Chinese-manufactured goods: The U.S.

WHY
- The Wang/Watson proposal is simple: Calculate emissions based on consumption, not production. The consumption of industrialized nations then becomes the focus, rather than the demand-driven production of developing nations.
- “Chinadependence” pointed out that Britain and other post-industrial countries exported manufacturing to China and other developing nations in the 1990s and can therefore “underreport” the current emissions they are really responsible for.
- China is building a new coal-fired power plant every week to meet manufacturing demands. Can it be blamed for wanting to meet the world’s demand for goods? Should it be condemned for rising to number 1 in GHG emissions production? Or should the nations where the demand originates be blamed?

In the last 3 decades, the OECD countries of the post-industrial world have reduced coal production and use while its use in China and Asia, where the dirty work is done, has replaced it. (click to enlarge)

QUOTES
- Wang/Watson report: “A focus on emissions within national borders may miss the point…Whilst the nation state is at the heart of most international negotiations and treaties, global trade means that a country's carbon footprint is international…Without this demand, China would not have developed so rapidly and its emissions would not have risen so sharply…”
- Andrew Simms, director, NEF: “Because of the way that data on carbon emissions gets collected at the international level, this has the effect of 'carbon laundering' economies like those of Britain and the U.S…”