What are historical emissions supposed to tell you about economic systems? Also, the per capita emissions for China aren't exactly stellar at around 8 tons/person/year. Yes, I know there are trade adjustments to do to better represent Chinese consumption.

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

What are historical emissions supposed to tell you about economic systems?

It shows who exactly is more responsible for the climate change overall, since the planet is not resetting itself every year.

[–] pingveno@lemmy.ml 3 points 2 years ago (1 children)

But does that not tell you more about where China was economically in the past than anything to do with connections between its economic system and its emissions? After all, there are plenty of countries with similar per capita histories that are fully capitalist.

[–] PolandIsAStateOfMind@lemmy.ml 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

It tells me how much pollution particular states released in the past. We of course could divide this by the time/capita etc, and it would still not look bad for China, considering for how short they are industrialised country, but the point of historical emission is just simple showing who polluted more overall.