Originally posted by bustr
China is exempt from any global accords on pollution. Mostly because China refuses to be constrained or acknowledge sensorship from anyone. At Chinas current rate of industrial and economic growth, China will soon take the lead as the worlds polluter. After all, China likes the increased prosperity that goes hand in hand with it's rapidly growing industrial manufactoring sector.
China is becoming the new USA. So Zulu, in this respect China is worse than the U.S. unless you just have a jones on for Bush and leverage any chance you get to denigrate him.
Not strictly true – China has signed and ratified Kyoto, and is set to become an Annex I country in Kyoto's second round in 2012. At which point it will required to stick to an emissions target.
It is currently set to exceed the US emissions by 2020. And given that it has over four times the population of the US, even it goes the cleaner European or Japanese route and produces about half the per capita CO2 of the US, it would still be set to exceed the US.
And it's not all bad news:
The US Natural Resources Defense Council, stated in June 2001: "By switching from coal to cleaner energy sources, initiating energy efficiency programs, and restructuring its economy, China has reduced its carbon dioxide emissions 17 percent since 1997".
The reason China is so pro Kyoto is not because it doesn't have to do anything: it's because it gets cleaner technologies on the cheap through the CDM.