At NYU Shanghai environmental concerns are well within our domain of unease. As the world’s largest metropolis, Shanghai has experienced no shortage of “un-natural” environmental disasters: ranging from frequent episodes of air-pocalypses to the two-week spectacle of disease-ridden pig carcasses floating down the Huangpu River in March of 2013. Frankly however, it’s a lot to ask for a city of almost twenty-five million residents to live in such close proximity without emitting a noticeable and substantial amount of waste. The situation in Shanghai thus depicts one of the prominent complications in trying to understand and develop environmental sustainability in our world. According to data from the World Bank collected in 2010, China ranks 58th among world nations in terms of per capita CO2 emissions, ranking lower than countries with far better eco-friendly reputations, including the Netherlands, United States, Norway, Canada, Germany, Australia, and Japan, among 57 others. Meanwhile, the top of the list holds Qatar, Trinidad and Tobago, and Kuwait as having the highest per capita emissions. Compared to China’s measured per capita emission of 6.2 metric tons of CO2 in 2010, Qatar’s emissions more than quintupled China’s at 40.3 metric tons of CO2 per person. Of course, Qatar’s current population is less than 1% of China’s, at around 2.17 million people, resulting in an estimated annual emission count of 86.7 million metric tons of CO2, whereas China emits around 8 billion metric tons of CO2 annually. Nonetheless, the big question here is, is Qatar’s disproportionately large emission of carbon dioxide per person excused because of its relatively low impact on the environment as compared to more populated countries such as China? While it is true that China’s fossil footprint is sizably larger than Qatar’s, it must not be forgotten that the total population of Qatar is considerably smaller than that of the population of Pudong, much less Shanghai and China as a whole. This brings up a question regarding the socio-political implications of globally asserting environmental sustainability. Recent UN Climate negotiations estimate that developed nations are currently responsible for 52% of greenhouse gas emissions emitted in the period spanning from 1850-2010, whereas developing countries are responsible for 48%. However, this estimate grows to assume that sometime in the current decade, the percentage of emissions accountable by developing countries will grow to 51%, overall surpassing the output of developed countries. Consequently, developed nations are now holding developing nations accountable for their high emission count. The issue is, this request is arguably unfair on multiple accounts. High emission rates are by no means exclusive to the actions of twenty-first century developing countries, but rather began centuries ago as now developed countries underwent their own industrial revolution. Although stories of China’s smog-ridden skies circulate the world today, London is no stranger to episodes of killer smog in its past either. The current socio-political implications of environmental matters remains, as a huge group of nations are currently developing at a rate that now developed countries experienced centuries and decades ago. Yet, at the world’s current rate of ever-increasing population growth, excessive emission counts are considered unacceptable. Is it thus fair for us to expect developing nations to relax their rate of development simply because more developed nations encountered this issue of environmental sustainability in a less stressful decade? I advocate for worldwide environmental sustainability as much as the next (environmentally impassioned) individual does. But as a whole, we must recognize the depth of the situations posed before assuming each nation’s sustainable responsibility as reflective of their emission rate in contrast to the rate of other nations. Already developed nations must recognize the socio-economic growth developing nations are currently undergoing before placing blame on those less-developed nations. Although developing nations should still be held accountable for their environmentally destructive actions, citizens of the Unites States should not assume less environmental impact on their own behalf simply because the skies of Houston, Texas are cleaner than those of Shanghai. As we noticed in the comparison between China and Qatar’s annual CO2 emission rates, China’s polluted skies are not representative of the average Chinese citizen’s carbon footprint as much as it’s simply reflective of the density of China’s population. At the end of the day, clean air does not indicate clean actions, and per capita emission rates should be held as liable as national emission rates are.

Sources:

http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.CO2E.PC?order=wbapi_data_value_2010+wbapi_data_value+wbapi_data_value-last&sort=desc

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cities_proper_by_population

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/15/opinion/chinas-environmental-awakening.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar%2C%7B%222%22%3A%22RI%3A15%22%7D&_r=0

http://www.pbl.nl/en/publications/countries-contributions-to-climate-change

http://data.worldbank.org/

This article was written by Betsie Wilson. Send an email to [email protected] to get in touch. Photo Credit: Wakx @ Flickr