As the developed nations in the West pursue some level of action against carbon emissions and global warming, they are running into a increasingly obvious problem – developing economies, especially the giants of China and India, are not necessarily going along for the ride.
While both China and India have at times said some of the right things with regard to Green supply chains, it is clear they have higher priorities for now.
In June, for example, China’s Vice Premier said that while the country will “actively” participate in carbon emissions efforts, it will do so “on the basis of common but differentiated responsibility.”
The likely meaning: we will do what we can, but economic growth comes first.
Later, a Chinese official made it even more clear when he said at a conference that with economic growth being job one in China, “It is natural for China to have some increase in its emissions, so it is not possible for China in that context to accept a binding or compulsory target.”
Around the same time, the country announced its plan to rely heavily on its abundant coal supplies for energy will necessitate a 30% increase in coal production over the next six years. The country may bring on as many as 14 giant new coal-powered electricity generating plants by the end of 2009.
India Also Makes Its Priorities Clear
The message from India has also been equally clear.
“There is simply no case for the pressure that we, who have among the lowest emissions per capita, face to actually reduce emissions,” Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told visiting US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton upon her visit to India. He made it clear India would simply not be signing on to any global scheme to cap carbon emissions.
All of which leads to two very important questions:
- Regardless of whether you believe in global warming theory or not, will the efforts of developed countries to lower their emissions (which have yet to prove effective) do any good if the 5 billion people in the developing economies, led by China and India, significantly increase their emissions over the next several decades?
- Will developed countries be willing to sacrifice their relative economic standing and competitiveness by enacting restrictive emissions policies and costs, while China and India prosper with less restrictive policies?
 There likely will be calls for various forms of “carbon tariffs” in the latter scenario in attempts by Western countries to level the playing field, but how that will really play is not clear.
Even Japan, an early signee to the Kyoto emissions agreement in 1997, is getting wobbly. It recently said it will only agree to decrease its emissions by an additional 2 percent beyond that was in the original agreement – no doubt in part quite aware of what its giant neighbor to the West is doing.
How will China and India’s action or non-action on carbon emissions impact such moves in the West? Do you expect to see carbon tariffs? Will they work? Let us know your thoughts at the Feedback button below.
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