I see that Tony Blair has said that the public must not be asked to do a \u201chuge amount\u201d to tackle climate change. \u00a0His point was that Britain\u2019s national efforts cannot contribute much to solving global warming. \u00a0He pointed out that what the UK could achieve would be minute compared to what China might do.<\/p>\n
How refreshing that the Great Helmsman is saying this. \u00a0Though obvious, it's a truth that universally usually gets lost in arguments that we need to take the global lead. \u00a0It\u2019s our government\u2019s responsibility it seems, as it represents a now-faded great power, to show the rest of the world the way; and our responsibility, as mostly uninvolved citizens, to pay for it. \u00a0More likely, of course, that our grandchildren (and theirs) will be doing this if we load ourselves with costly debt trying to lead the way.<\/p>\n
Our problems are two-fold and intertwined: [i] a hubristic view that we have such a responsibility, and [ii] our guilt for starting the industrial revolution. \u00a0But China has generated more CO2 over the past decade than the UK has since 1750. \u00a0Between then and 2020, the UK produced some 78 billion tonnes, compared with China\u2019s contribution of around 80 billion tonnes over the past 10 years or so. \u00a0But as China still considers itself a developing country it spares itself any responsibility, despite having emitted 14% of all emissions throughout history. \u00a0Only the United States has done more with around 25% of emissions over time. By comparison, we have produced about 4.6% of all emissions and ~ 80% of these were before 1990 following which we have taken a few successful steps to decouple economic growth from CO2 emissions.<\/p>\n