https://apnews.com/article/climate-donald-trump-joe-biden-united-nations-barack-obama-33aacb939b5ee0b8aa1add7688cb267a

America is the worst

    • EthicalHumanMeat [he/him]
      ·
      edit-2
      3 years ago

      Good. It means that they've emitted less than their "fair share" within the emissions threshold for climate change, meaning that they've effectively credited carbon "space" in the atmosphere to over-emitting countries like the US. Their relative lack of emissions has soaked up some of the excess emissions (beyond their "fair share") of the imperial core nations. Like, if you divide up the total amount of sustainable emissions prior to this point by global population, their per capita emissions have been less than they could have been without causing climate change. This is true of the whole global south, but contrary to claims made by Western imperialists like the US, it is also true of China.

      The implication of this is that imperialist nations like the US:

      1. bear the brunt of the responsibility for cutting emissions, and
      2. owe creditor countries like China for the carbon debt they've accrued

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_debt