(click image to enlarge. Steven Davis/Carnegie Institution for Science)While China continues to win praise for it green programs at home, a study released yesterday in the Proceeding of the National Academy of Sciences highlights that much of the CO2 emission of developing economies like China and India are actually "exported" to the US and Europe.
As the study reports, over a third of carbon dioxide emissions associated with consumption of goods and services in many developed countries are actually emitted outside their borders. Some countries, such as Switzerland, “outsource” over half of their carbon dioxide emissions, primarily to developing countries. The study finds that, per person, about 2.5 tons of carbon dioxide are consumed in the U.S. but produced somewhere else. For Europeans, the figure can exceed four tons per person. Most of these emissions are outsourced to developing countries, especially China.
The map above details the net outflow of CO2 emissions (in megatons) embedded in shipments between exporting and importing countries in 2004.
How does this insight make you feel about Walmart's Green initiatives?
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