Wales must lead by example as UK’s emissions a real problem

What is the point in reducing carbon emissions when countries like China are not, asks social affairs correspondent Will Hayward

“THERE is no point cutting our CO2 emissions because the UK is such a tiny producer”.

The UK emits a minuscule amount of emissions compared to some economic powerhouses.

For example, China and India combined emit 37% of global emissions.

The UK by comparison is less than 1% of global annual emissions according to the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.

However, there is a lot more to this than meets the eye and there are very good reasons why the UK needs to pull its weight when it comes to carbon emissions. Our carbon footprint is actually much bigger. That 1% figure for the UK is actually very misleading because it does not include imported goods.

All the products and services we get from abroad – and the carbon produced making them and importing them – are not taken into consideration

This is known as “offshoring” and is a major reason why our emissions have fallen (as well as cleaner electricity generation).

So India and China do have higher emissions, but much of it is to sate our demand for products. China is now doing a similar thing to parts of Africa. A recent Office for National Statistics report found the UK had become the biggest net importer of carbon dioxide emissions per capita in the G7 group of wealthy nations. This puts it ahead of both China and Japan.

According to the ONS, the UK increased its net imports of CO2 emissions per capita from 1.7 tonnes in 1992 to 5.1 tonnes in 2007. This offsets the progress the UK has made shifting its economy away from fossil fuels.

Yes, the UK has relatively small emissions now compared to other countries.

But the warming we are now experiencing is the result of more than 100 years of burning fossil fuels and we were the first nation to do this on a massive scale.

If you look at our “cumulative emissions”, which are the emissions we’ve put into the atmosphere since the industrial era – we still rank fifth in the world.

Because the UK was the first country to industrialise it became very wealthy and did so by burning fossil fuels.

When poorer countries seek to increase their standards of living by doing the same it would be nearimpossible to convince them to industrialise in a green way without the UK leading by example.

According to Bob Ward, from the Grantham Research Institute, we “set an important example, as a rich country and as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, to other countries because we have reduced our annual emissions by 44% while expanding our economy by 75% since 1990. We cannot persuade other countries to cut their emissions unless we lead by example.”

We need to do our bit if we are going to get through this climate emergency

We can only control what is in our power. If Wales does not lead by example in the green revolution as it did in the industrial revolution it would be a real missed opportunity.

The scale of the problem is so huge that unless every country, large and small, does their bit we will probably fail.