Almost 30% of energy use and 35% of CO2-emissions in China comes from the production of export goods

[Demeter]

http://www.lowtechmagazine.com/2008/01/the-worlds-fact.html#more



... The greenhouse gases that are saved in western countries by installing windmills and solar panels are abundantly compensated for by the building of new coal plants in these countries...
The latest energy report of the International Energy Agency (IEA) was dedicated largely to the growing energy needs of India and China. Both countries will consume half of the extra energy needed in 2030. An important explanation for their energy hunger is mentioned somewhere halfway the report, almost casually summarized in a little box. According to the calculations of the IEA, in 2004 more than 28 percent of energy consumption in China was the consequence of the production of export goods...Three years before, in 2001, this number amounted to ‘only’ 18 percent. If we compare this to the US, this percentage in 2001 was 6 percent, in Europe 7 percent. China is – increasingly – the factory hall of the west. The IEA did not make the same calculations for India (and other low-wage countries), but a similar evolution is taking place there.


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Map : Carbon Monitoring for Action has collected the CO2-emissions of 50,000 energy plants in a database
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Cheap electronics


In the last 10 years, Europeans and Americans have moved their factories one by one to Asia, because the manufacturing of consumer goods is cheaper there due to lower cost of labour and the absence of environmental laws. That’s why we can buy dirt cheap electronics and clothing, while we can at the same time boast that we are more or less in control of our energy consumption and environmental problems (at least in Europe, where in the past year several countries emitted less CO2 than the year before)...The laptop on which this article was written, the clothes of the author, the lamp that illuminates this desk (*), the printer, the telephone, the carpet, the slippers: all these things were manufactured in China and environs, even though they carry a western brand name....
(*) The desk on which this article was written was made in Poland. 90 percent of the energy production there is running on coal, the country has the highest CO2 emissions per capita in Europe.



Virtual energy import

Since last year, the Chinese are the largest producers of greenhouse gases in the world, but it’s clear that it’s inappropriate to point the finger at them. If we were to produce all of our rubbish ourselves, our energy use and CO2 emissions would be a lot higher. Western countries import massive amounts of ‘virtual energy’, just like they import massive amounts of ‘virtual water’. On the other hand, we export waste and environmental pollution. At least, that’s the equilibrium now.

By moving our production processes to China and India, we make the Chinese a little bit richer every day. By 2030, the Chinese economy will increasingly be aimed at the domestic market, the IEA predicts. It seems impossible that China and India one day will reach the same standard of living as we do, since that implies that the other half of the planet will be used as a trashcan and sweatshop. However, it might not always be the same half of the planet.

[AndyA]

1. Everyone should think about this before rushing down to their local Wal-Mart

to buy more cheap imported Chinese goods. Oh, and be sure to take the Toyota, too, because that does so much to support the American auto workers who depend on their pension to support themselves and their families.

[DCKit]

2. Aren't most Toyotas (and Hondas) sold in the U.S. manufactured in the U.S.?

Though I am hugely conflicted at the thought of buying non-American, Toyota, Honda and VW are building the kind of cars that I want to drive: Detroit is not. Additionally, while neglecting to plan or build fuel-efficient and well-finished cars for the American market, the big three have maintained that it's their unions that are causing them to fail and not their business plan. God knows they've only had thirty five years notice to get it right, but enough people are tired of waiting to have made both Toyota and Honda market leaders.

The first mass-market, affordable electric car will most likely come from Asia and I expect the American car companies to fight it's importation tooth and nail.

[AndyA]

4. Yes, perhaps most Toyotas are made in the United States.

But where are their corporate headquarters? Ultimately, profits go back home and that means they do not stay in America.

"American made" is just a label they stick on the car, hoping people don't think about it too much before they buy.

I believe to put America first, you have to buy from American companies, who are all fighting to compete against companies from other nations that don't have the same responsibilities to their citizens that America has. It's not a level playing field, and that puts American companies at a disadvantage.

[DCKit]

6. I agree with you in theory Andy...

but the onus is on the American car companies to produce the vehicles we want to buy.

Billions were given to the car companies during the Clinton administration for researching alternatives, yet they chose to hitch their wagon to hydrogen fuel cells, a technology that won't be ready for prime-time for another thirty years. Little or no investment in efficiency, clean diesel, hybrid technology, NiMH or Li-ion batteries was carried out by American car companies; they simply handed it to the Asians. You can hardly blame Toyota or Honda for having the vision to take advantage of the gift.

I also agree that it's a shame that much of the money made by foreign automakers in the U.S. flows back overseas, but the workers salaries are staying and being spent here (except when it's spent at X-Mart). Given the amount of overseas production the Big Three are engaged in, it probably balances out.

The U.S. automakers are not victims, they are bloated, failed businesses that are subsidized and have been bailed out by the government too many times already. They refuse to use their vast resources of infrastructure and talent to develop new, revolutionary products and deserve to die like any other failed company.

I don't like it either, but we need to get off the merry-go-round.

[The2ndWheel]

3. If anything, from the article, everyone should think about this before

rushing to their local anywhere to buy any good.

[AndyA]

5. Good point well taken. n/m