Paul Krugman, columnist for the New York Times, wrote an op-ed this week arguing that China, the empire of carbon, “cannot continue along its current path because the planet can’t handle the strain.” China is the world’s leading producer of carbon dioxide and the country’s “emissions, which come largely from its coal-burning electricity plants, doubled between 1996 and 2006.” Even though “it is unfair to expect China to live within constraints that we didn’t have to face when our own economy was on its way up…like it or not, China will have to do its part.”
“The good news is that the very inefficiency of China’s energy use offers huge scope for improvement. Given the right policies, China could continue to grow rapidly without increasing its carbon emissions. But first it has to realize that policy changes are necessary.”
Solutions to climate change will require leadership from the United States and China.
Photo from Chang W. Lee/The New York Times.
