CRI-Q#3. How is low-carbon living different in developed and developing countries?
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Q#3 - How is low-carbon living different in developed and developing countries?
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Q#3 - How is low-carbon living different in developed and developing countries?
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My understanding is one way that it is different between certain counries (China) and others (not China - please correct, if wrong) is that in China there is already a limit on the number of children that a couple may have.
Is this a concern?
Well, even though I tend to agree that the lack of control concens me in other countries, we’ll have to tread a fine line…
…because even Baidu references that in America the carbon footprint people who get divorced tend to go up around 50%!
See:
http://baike.baidu.com/view/3076792.htm
This from the UK:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/apr/07/featuresreviews.guardianreview6
How to Live a Low-Carbon Life:
The UK Individual’s Guide to Stopping Climate Change
“”
People will have to go it alone.
From that position,
premised on a calculation that the UK’s total GHG emissions,
divided by its population
= individual responsibility for 12.5 tonnes a year.
Since stopping warming means very deep cuts in all emissions of GHG…
…each of us has to cut the 12.5 tonnes to 3.
6 tonnes of the 12.5 come from our direct emissions:
running our homes and our average travel.
6.5 tonnes come from indirect emissions (on our behalf):
The creation of steel, concrete, food, plastic, and the other stuff that makes up where we live,
what we eat, and how we spend our time.
It is instructive to see where the main challenges lie,
in order of importance.
Our average 6 tonnes of direct emissions are
led by 1.8 from air travel, then 1.2 from car travel, 1.2 from home heating, and 0.6 from electric appliances other than lighting, which is 0.1. Cooking, assuming that we use gas, is a surprisingly low average of 0.1.
The big difficulty comes with air travel.
Goodall has a zero-tolerance approach.
If you happen to disagree, and feel you can justify - or can’t avoid - a flight or two each year, he points to plenty of other opportunities to mix and match with carbon-cutting. As for frequent flying? Well, have a look at his tables and do the sums.
This is a bullet we are all going to have to bite.
When it comes to indirect emissions, our average 6.5 tonnes can quite feasibly be cut to zero, Goodall argues. The 6.5 tonne cut-back is led by 1.3 tonnes of emissions from preparation and delivery of the food we buy. This we can achieve by buying organic food, grown locally, and not buying processed or packaged food. Another 1.3 tonnes can come from offsetting and solar water-heating. A tonne can be saved by investing in a co-operative wind farm.”"
One question I ask:
Can your average Chinese afford to invest in Wind Farms from their savings?
There may be a tier of society who can, but no way near as large (in terms of % of the population) a tier as in more developed countries)?
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DaLONG - Philip McMaster, Peace Plus One - World Sustainability Project, Beijing, China
The lifestyle of developed countries is much more high-carbon than that of developing ones. However, low-carbon living requires cooperation from both developed and developing countries, with some noticeable differences:
1. Cities in developed countries are usually much more spread out and more efforts should be spent on greener driving.
2. Cities in developing countries are usually more concentrated, and public transportation, walking and bicycling should be encouraged.
Brian Ho, Director, China, CSR - ASIA
http://www.csr-asia.com
As a middle class, carbon living is much easier in the West (Europe). There is more availability of quality public transport, better insulation of houses, convenient garbage recycling schemes, human-size cities… It’s difficult to translate actions we used to take in west when living in China.
Pablo J Perez, MBA ‘09 China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) , Shanghai http://www.ceibs.edu
The lifestyle of developed countries is much more high-carbon than that of developing ones. However, low-carbon living requires cooperation from both developed and developing countries, with some noticeable differences:
1. Cities in developed countries are usually much more spread out and more efforts should be spent on greener driving.
2. Cities in developing countries are usually more concentrated, and public transportation, walking and bicycling should be encouraged.
Brian Ho, Director, China, CSR - ASIA
Promoting Corporate Social Responsibility in the Asia Pacific Region
Engaging with the issues as they emerge
People in developing countries seldom concern about the low-carbon living, cuz they haven’t realized that a good environment is also a kind of social welfare. This could be understood. In poverty , people first care about the material success rather than a fresh air. But the situation is changing now.
Nowadays more and more people in China come to lead a low-carbon life. For my part, it is the 3 fingers spirit that encouraged me to be engaged in the low-carbon revolution. I am researching the green economy voluntarily recently. I sincerely wish the earth–our mother would be more and more beautiful.
Ellen, Student in Beijing
China as a developing country that can not blindly follow the Western industrialized countries use fossil energy development industry, not blindly increase the speed of private cars … … Otherwise, China will suffer the energy crisis in advance! Only the implementation of cleaner production and vigorously promote the civilization and consumption, and take the road of sustainable development is our inevitable choice.
There are great differences between the low-carbon life in developed and developing countries, which is impacted by the living standard, such as cars is the main row of carbon emission in personal life of Western developed countries, while the main row of carbon emission of individuals is not cars but the other in developing countries; so, in the personal aspects of life, the average amount of carbon emission of individuals of Western developed countries much higher than developing countries.
Of course, Western developed countries are the market economy, so a large number of emissions from individual vehicles, while also bringing valuable demand of energy, therefore, to develop awareness and habits of conservation, the individual low-carbon Life of Western developed countries which have an active awareness factor; while the personal carbon emission of developing countries caused by the economic consumption was not obvious, and therefore has a passive character. In my opinion, this is the differences between the low-carbon life in developed and developing countries.
There is one thing that is very different between developed and under development countries: Education.
Underdeveloped countries are not wealthy, -if- they go to school and study, is to make money and buy the things they see on TV, it is a consumers world. They are not taught how important keeping carbon emissions low is, because it is still not a big deal over there, it is perceived as a problem of the other countries, the wealthy countries, not theirs, therefore, is not part of the curriculum.
This situation is starting to change, but it will take a lot of time before a person from an underdeveloped -poor- country CHOOSES to pay MORE for a product that is environmentally friendly, instead of saving the money for something else, say food? or a clothe? Does anyone from a developed country does this already? I’m guessing not many.