China biggest polluter, says Dutch study
A Dutch study has said that China has become world's biggest producer of greenhouse gases, outdoing the us by 8 per cent. The Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency on June 19 said industrial China's carbon emissions rose by 9 per cent in 2006.
Globally, fossil fuel emissions have gone up by 2.6 per cent last year primarily due to a 4.5 per cent increase in global coal consumption. China has contributed more than two-thirds to the coal intake, says the study. The agency says China produced 6,200 million tonnes of CO2 last year and the us emitted 5,800 million tonnes. Only the CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and cement production have been included in estimating China's ghg status.
But many feel the industrialised nations also have a share in this since much of the Chinese goods are exported to the West."All that the West has done is export a great slice of its carbon footprint to China and make China the world's factory,' says Yang Ailun of Greenpeace China.
According to reports, Chinese environmental officials have acknowledged rising emissions but they say the country is far below the us on a per capita basis because of the difference in the population of the two countries. "On one hand, you shall increase the production in China, on the other you criticise it on the emissions reduction issue," says Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Qin Gang.