John Ashton Talks Bollocks

John Ashton:

The Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, on 8 June announced the appointment of John Ashton as a Special Representative for Climate Change. He will support Ministers in delivering a step-change in the international response to climate change – a new strategic priority for the FCO.

Mr Ashton will join the FCO in the week beginning 19 June on secondment from Third Generation Environmentalism (E3G), an independent not-for-profit organisation that works in the public interest to accelerate the global transition to sustainable development. He is a co-founder of E3G and has been its Chief Executive since its inception in 2004.

Talks bollocks:

Mr Ashton added that the Chinese had put out their first climate strategy, in an effort "to get to grips with their emissions and use energy efficiently".

He pointed out that much of China's emissions growth was being driven by consumers in the West buying Chinese goods, and noted that China's emissions per person were still well below those of rich nations.

"Much"? Here:

As of July 2006, the Chinese population was 1.3 billion, which               is more than four times as large as the U.S. population of 298 million.               In terms of total production, measured in dollars at purchasing               power parity, the Chinese economy is the world’s second largest               economy, trailing only the United States. In 2005, the Chinese GDP               exceeded $8 trillion, which was roughly two-thirds the U.S. GDP.               (See Figure 2.) Not surprisingly,               these two countries were two of the three leading exporting and               importing countries in the world. (7)(See               Figure 3.)

            

The most vivid illustration of rapid Chinese growth can be seen               by examining the Chinese economy on a per capita basis. Adjusted               for inflation, China’s per capita GDP in 2004 was 6.6 times               its 1980 level. (See Figure 4.)               Annual growth rates of real per capita GDP in excess of five percent               have been the norm in recent years. (See               Figure 5.) In the late 1970s China’s real GDP per capita               was slightly less than 5 percent of the U.S. level. Today it exceeds               10 percent. (See Figure 6.) Thus,               although the overall Chinese economy is large, China is still a               country with a relatively low level of per capita income. To provide               perspective, China’s real per capita GDP today is about equal               to U.S. per capita GDP in 1886.

...

One manifestation of this fact is that Chinese growth has resulted               in large effects on overall trade flows. The integration of the               Chinese economy into the world economy can be seen very clearly               by examining how Chinese exports and imports have changed since               the late 1970s. In 1979 Chinese exports as a share of Chinese GDP               was 5 percent. Since then the share has risen to 36 percent. (See               Figure 7.) The course of Chinese imports has taken a similar               path rising from roughly 6 percent of GDP in 1979 to 34 percent               in 2005. These import and export shares may be compared with the               shares for the United States: Imports are 16 percent of U.S. GDP               and exports are 10 percent.

That would be "a minority" then.

"Responsibility for China's soaring emissions lies not just in Beijing but also in Washington, Brussels and Tokyo," said Greenpeace UK director John Sauven.

Err, no, not really. It's Chinese people climbing out of socialism imposed absolute poverty actually.

We are not all guilty.