Who is really the worst?
Once again I find myself commenting on a podcast by Those Vicar Blokes. The episode in question, Crumbling Schools, King David & Fake Doctors. In this case its not on a topic within the podcast but a throwaway line referring to the world’s major greenhouse gas emitters.
In the particular podcast, they mention India and China as being the biggest emitters of greenhouse gasses. Not mentioned was America, another huge emitter. Whilst that is true if not quite correct and there is plenty of evidence, the bigger picture is not that simple.
For decades it has been the affluent western nations who were the big polluters. Albeit that some of it from before the damage to climate was known about. Nevertheless, even once the detriment to the planet became established science, there was little action for many years to reduce emissions and clean up industry and public emissions.
China and India for decades were playing catch-up to western countries. Can we now blame them for doing what we did decades earlier? Should we help them to reduce their emissions? Politically, it is a difficult decision because of the cost of decarbonisation. Morally, it’s an easy decision. We did it first and we also established the damage first through our science.
What complicates the picture is not just the total national emissions, it is the per capita emissions. In 2021 China was the world’s single biggest emitter of greenhouse gasses. Next America then India*. I have not included the European Union, nominally third place, because it is not a single country as are the others so can only be averaged. Within the EU, Germany is currently the biggest emitter, Ireland and Portugal the lowest**.
Now lets look at emissions per capita. On this figure America leads the world at 15 tonnes per capita per annum, then Russia at 12. China is slightly over half the American figure and India is way down at 2 tonnes per capita.*
India in particular is still catching up with western nations, China less so in technology. And, of course, plenty of western nations rely on those two countries for manufacturing products we want, or rely on. By contracting with them without suitable contracts to reduce emissions, with the associated costs, we cannot place all the blame for the emissions on them. We must bear some responsibility.
* EC, Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research 2021 figures.
** Global Carbon Project, 2019 (when UK was EU member)
Entertaining Angels 
Yeah, it’s definitely not a black-and-white issue. All countries do need to reduce their emissions…but people have to be aware of the hidden agendas at play.
In this particular case, it’s that the ruling class in several of these Western nations want to prevent China (in particular), from rapidly advancing and taking over their positions of being the main players in terms of global trade and the economy.
Hence the strong attacks and criticisms on China being the major greenhouse gas emitter in the world.