"The UK now emits fewer tonnes of CO2 per person than China."
Because we're now basically post-industrial. Who makes all our products? Oh, China. Effectively, we've exported a lot of our emissions.
You're entirely right that the more populous nations are crucial, but the more developed ones have a vital role to play in leadership, technology, financing, and simply setting a good example.
Yup totally agree. It is not just that, but having made the products we no longer manufacture for ourselves; it is then shipped round the globe to us – yet more CO2 emissions.
You know it was a Swedish Scientist that figured out and predicted what we now call the greenhouse effect all the way back in 1859, and here we are today still arguing over it, whilst all the time our climate continues to warm.
There is of course another inconvenient fact, and that is that fossil fuels are a valuable and finite resource. At the end of the day the vast bulk of our energy needs to become fully renewable irrespective of the impact of CO2 emissions and the facts of the greenhouse effect.
Then whilst some complain that countries like China and India are today the big emitters, well I wonder who is responsible for the bulk of the CO2 added to the atmosphere over the last 150 years. Hmmm.
As for China, I think they are really starting to wake up to the fact, that they like everybody else, if not on average - more so, will be affected by climate change.
Meanwhile, the next industrial and financial revolution is in green energy solutions. Scotland might not figure that much when it comes to current day by day emissions when compared to massive countries like China, but then the big winners in all this are going to be those who develop the technology and solutions to the global problems we face.