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Comment by teebot | Hacker News Reader

You could not be further from the truth. Carbon emissions per capita is way higher in the US and in Europe than in China and India.

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It's more complicated than that. Emissions in the US, Canada and some European countries are higher (per capita) while some other countries like the UK, Italy, Spain and France are below China. The EU as a whole ranks a bit below China on a per captia basis.

However the other important factor here is the trend line. Most western countries above China in this ranking has a trend line pointing downwards, while China still has a trend line pointing upwards. So if both China and the US continue on their current paths then China will indeed soon surpass the US.

isn't it even more complicated than that?

It would seem that manufacturing would have a significant impact on the figures and a lot of manufacturing has been outsourced to China/India.

So how much of all the stuff that is bought and consumed in the EU/USA is actually produced in China or India?

China, 7.5 metric tons per person in 2014. Switzerland, 4.3. Sweden, 4.5. France, 4.6. Spain, 5.0. Italy, 5.3. UK, 6.5.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_di...

Not sure if you were trying to make a point about China having a greater output than European contries but you missed the USA: 16.5 (metric tons per capita).

Cherry-picking data much?

That same article lists the EU overall at 8.6 and US at 17.

AFAIK a fair part of China's emissions are due to the production of goods not bought by Chinese but by Swiss, French, Spanish... nationals. China "decides" to produce, so this country is somewhat "guilty", but let's not neglect its "accomplices".

Good point. Have an upvote.

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