, originally uploaded by andrewlee1967

Ryan Avent on China and US Carbon Emissions and Market Economies:

The US and its brethren have a great deal of slack in their economies, as measured by efficiency of carbon use. The fact that we produce so little per unit of emissions relative to the rest of the rich world tells me that we can eliminate a great deal of carbon output using currently available technologies and social structures, which are successfully deployed in other first world nations right now. Failure to do this basically tells the world that we believe we deserve to be richer than them–not because we’re more productive, just because. When the future of the world is on the line, maintaining this attitude is a good way to seriously alienate and provoke everyone else out there.
Next, it’s important to realize that our interests and China’s interests are nearly perfectly aligned. We both really, really need to protect Chinese economic growth and reduce Chinese emissions. And we ought to do this by cutting our own emissions, leading the way on international carbon reduction rules, and investing heavily in emissions cutting technologies.
[emphasis in original]

Very good points.
What he doesn’t mention however, is that if the US becomes the leader in developing green or sustainable technologies and systems, the US can go and sell that know-how back to the world we pushed to the breaking point. You would think energy companies would be scrambling to become that company, but so far the profits apparently aren’t worth the expenditures.