Though the United States has enjoyed seemingly unmatched prosperity since the end of World War II, it recently lost it’s title of “World’s Largest Carbon Emitter” to China, a nation whose development since the 1990s has been nothing short of meteoric.  But as China moves ever closer to the U.S. in another dubiously distinctive category—oil consumption—environmental disaster may be looming, in the form of the Chinese government slinking away from its international obligation to combat harmful climate change.

International sentiment, to this point, had largely agreed that control of heat-trapping gas emissions was a problem for powerful, developed nations to deal with. After all, they create the lion’s share of the problem, and tend not to bear the brunt of the consequences. But many so-called developing nations are being asked to shoulder the climate burden as well, and none of these nations is more critical than China.  

Yet for its part, the Chinese government seems to be quite content to plead poverty in this case. Pointing to a carbon emissions per capita level roughly 25 percent of that in the United States, as well as a much lower human development index, which integrates several quality of life measures, China says impeding its growth with carbon caps would be unfair.  Of course, using the same standards in the other direction, the miniscule European nation of Luxemborg would be most responsible for curbing the climate crisis.

However, despite heavy pressure from the Chinese government, some Chinese intellectuals are beginning to clamor for more participation from the Asian economic powerhouse. Hu Angang, of Beijing’s Tsinghua University, has argued vehemently that China needs to step up its role, recently telling Reuters: “When China becomes the top polluter, it must also shoulder its responsibility to reduce emissions.... China must assume its due obligations, even though the current leaders haven't grasped this.”

I think the primary problem with the current viewpoint of the Chinese government lies in seeing carbon caps as an obstacle rather than an opportunity. Ignoring the need to transition to cleaner energy sources now does indeed offer China an immediate, short-term advantage, but it comes at the price of updating its rapidly expanding infrastructure at some point in the future. Meanwhile, other countries will reap the benefits of cleaner fuel and reduced dependence on foreign energy sources.