KevinPGallagher

Haven't given up hope yet. On a national level China is doing a lot to address climate change, as is Chile, Mexico, and many European nations. Even though the US is going in the wrong direction, many states and localities are working hard. Globally however, as our work at the GDP Center (www.bu.edu/gdp) shows, China is exporting carbon intensive industry overseas and the US is pulling out of the Paris Accord. THat said, the World Bank will stop financing oil, gas and coal, and many other development banks have made similar commitments. Last week the UN said we really have a 12 year window. There is momentum and we need your help. Ask again in 12 years!

We have to remember that American capitalism was built on the blatant theft of intellectual property rights. Francis Cabot Lowell stole the designs of the power loom from the UK. Then, after the war of 1812 (which naturally blocked trade with the UK) the US blocked tariffs so we could develop textiles and many other industries. Now the US is saying 'Do as we say, not as we did'. The economist Ha Joon Chang's book KICKING AWAY THE LADDER really calls out these contradictions.

China has not been that blatant and there are actually fewer cases than the press would have us believe. China, like most successful Asian economies such as South Korea and Japan before them, negotiate technology sharing as a condition for foreign entry of firms. For the first few decades of Chinese reform foreign firms were happy to make such a trade in order to gain access to China's market and more so the export platform China provided. Now they are more reluctant. China is getting a bit more aggressive for sure, but from a development perspective when poorer countries see that the US built its industrial prowess on loose intellectual property rights and that over 90 percent of world patents are in the West--nations need ways to get access to technology in order to develop.

From the greatest living jazz musician alive, Herbie Hancock the WATERMELON MAN https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZbHJHPTikQA

A straight shooting un-biased and accessible account of China--on the economic front--is Arthur Kroeber's China's Economy: What Everyone Needs to Know. https://www.amazon.com/Chinas-Economy-Everyone-Needs-Know%C2%AE/dp/0190239034

Yes. China's seat at the top may be temporary but it is too early to tell. China has committed to decreasing the emissions intensity of its economy, not total emissions. There had been a plateau but the recent figures are concerning for sure. We at the GDP Center have also shown that there is an inconsistency with China's domestic and global policies, with the majority of its foreign investment in carbon intensive industries http://www.bu.edu/gdp/initiatives/gci/.