As China's economy expands, it is turning increasingly to carbon-laden coal for electricity.
And although China's energy intensity (energy consumed per unit of economic output) has decreased by nearly 5 percent per year for the last two decades as a result of greater efficiency, it is still nearly seven times that of the United States, according to the World Bank.
At this rate, China's growth trajectory could add the equivalent pollution of another present-day United States to the climate system in a little more than a decade.
Dollar-for-dollar, the most efficient way to cut global greenhouse gas emissions would be, in theory, to invest hundreds of billions of dollars to improve China's energy efficiency.
But Congress would never support such an approach.
After all, which members of Congress would vote to undercut the competitiveness of U.S. companies, especially in the face of a weak domestic economy, public anger over outsourcing, China's currency value, and the U.S. trade deficit with China?
More broadly, how long will voters in Europe and Japan, which have done the most to limit emissions, be prepared to make sacrifices for the global climate if they believe they are alone in doing so?
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3980&page=1
