this post was submitted on 27 Mar 2025
97 points (100.0% liked)
Green Energy
2646 readers
65 users here now
Everything about energy production and storage.
Related communities:
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
They produced 4 billion tons CO2e last year, more than all of Africa and almost as much as the US. They’re not “the” problem but they are a significant problem and their emissions are rising sharply.
There are more people in India than in Africa, it shouldn't be that surprising for India to also produce more emissions. However, going by your source India produced less than Africa in total and quite a bit less than the US in total in 2023, the most recent year it shows
India's rate of increase is alarming, I agree with that. I just don't think it's very reasonable to criticise them in the same breath as the US, China, or Europe when they are so much less polluting per person and also suffering the impacts of climate change so much more
I don't really care about per person. I'm concerned about where the problems in the world are, so they can be fixed.
I'm not saying the Indians are sinning for creating carbon emissions. I am saying that India forming a large part of the world's emissions -- and, in particular, that fact that its emissions are still rising sharply which even the US has managed not to do -- means that it's worth paying attention to.
I had thought that India surpassed Africa last year, but I can't find the numbers. Maybe I am wrong.
For another way to look at it, look at this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita
Maybe that's more of a complete / more accurate picture, in terms of what everyone's doing and what directions everything is moving.
Based on the rate of increase I can certainly believe that India passed Africa in 2024. It's close and India is rising while Africa isn't
I think we do need to consider per capita, though, because in any fair world we should probably all share a somewhat similar level of responsibility. GHGs don't care about national borders. If we reach a global net zero, that shouldn't mean that Belgian people all still drive petrol cars just because Belgium is a small portion of the global population, right? And at the same time, I'm certainly not keen on trying any sort of directed birth control policy on a global scale because there's just no way that turns out well