Climate bad boys

China, India and Russia -- three of the world's over 200 countries -- comprise half the world's population, and they were not present at the recent Glasgow "climate conference," underscoring their lack of interest in curbing their carbon emissions at the expense of their economic growth. And there are good reasons, as laid out neatly by the linked Spike (2 November 2021) column, excerpts below:

According to the Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research (EDGAR), in 2019 China produced 11,504 megatonnes (Mt) of CO2 emissions, more than double those of the US (5,107 Mt). India produced 2,563 Mt, dwarfing the 360 Mt produced by the UK and nearly as much as western, northern and southern Europe combined.

The central focus of government policies should be the enhancement of human existence, making the world a better place for people. That means creating the conditions for economic growth. This doesn’t mean we should blindly concrete over everything. We all appreciate the beauty of nature and want to preserve it where we can. But the needs of humanity must be the bottom line. Plus, the best way to preserve nature is to get richer and make the production of food, goods and energy as efficient as possible.

It is no surprise that fast-developing countries are focused on economic growth and reducing poverty. Take India. According to the World Bank, India’s population in 2020 was 1.38 billion people – just under 18 per cent of the world’s population. Whatever India does therefore has a big impact on the world. Depending on whose data you use, India has the fifth or sixth largest economy in nominal terms – with roughly the same GDP as the UK or France. Using the alternative measure of purchasing-power parity (PPP), which takes into account how much things cost in each country, India is the third-biggest economy in the world.

While some parts of India are growing fast, there are still an awful lot of poor people. About 84million Indians live in ‘extreme poverty’ – that is, they have less than $1.90 per day to live on. And as of 2011, 60 per cent of Indians had an income less than the World Bank’s definition of ‘lower-middle income’ – a far-from-luxurious $3.20 per day. So while India has certainly made great strides in economic development in recent years, it is still overwhelmingly poor by the standards of Europe, America or Japan.

No wonder India wants to continue to expand its economic output. More and more Indians want better food, wages, transport, connectivity and air conditioning. All that requires more energy, much of which will come from fossil fuels. In its report, India Energy Outlook 2021, the International Energy Agency (IEA) notes that India’s energy use has doubled since 2000, but 80 per cent of that energy still comes from coal, oil and solid biomass.