Next Climate Meet In Durban - Hanoi A Better Choice; Vietnam Carbon Emissions Up 136% In 10 Years

[hatrack]

In December, another alphabet soup congregation on climate change will meet in Durban, South Africa to discuss efforts to reduce global carbon dioxide emissions. Durban may be a fine city. But if the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change wants a dose of reality regarding carbon emissions, it should convene in Hanoi.

The reason: over the past decade, Vietnam's carbon dioxide emissions grew by 136%. That's faster than any other country on the planet. And Vietnam's explosive growth looks like it will continue for years to come. Indeed, the country where some 58,000 US soldiers died stands as a proxy for many of the countries in the developing world. And as those countries grow their economies, their energy use, and their carbon dioxide emissions, the hope for any hard cap -- or tax -- on carbon becomes ever more remote.

To be sure, Vietnam's energy use is a tiny fraction of that used by countries like China and the US. In 2010, Vietnam's 90 million inhabitants consumed about 900,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day. That's a rounding error when compared to China's consumption of nearly 49 million barrels of oil equivalent per day or US consumption of nearly 46 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. Even South Africa, which has about half as many people as Vietnam, consumes nearly 2.5 times as much energy.

But the latest data from the BP Statistical Review of World Energy, released last month, shows that Vietnam's huge appetite for energy is part of an ongoing surge in the developing world to escape energy poverty. Vietnam represents a whole class of fast-growing, populous countries where energy use is growing ferociously and that's resulting in more carbon dioxide emissions -- 33.1 trillion tons in 2010 alone, an increase of 28% over 2001 numbers.

EDIT

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-bryce/another-climate-change-meeting-looms_b_893750.html

[The Croquist]

1. Why give an economic boost to a country increasing CO2 use?

Why not a country that has been reducing CO2. Here are the top 20 countries in terms of annual reductions from 1990 - 2007. Here are a few examples:

Gabon -21%
North Korea -17%
Mauritania -6%
Guinea -6%
Zimbabwe -5%
Western Sahara -4%
Côte d'Ivoire -4%
French Guiana -4%
Albania -4%
Romania -3%
Zambia -3%
Palau -3%
Saint Pierre and Miquelon -2%
Cuba -2%
Singapore -2%
Bulgaria -2%
Bermuda -1%
Aruba -1%
Brunei -1%
Switzerland -1%

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions_per_capita

Number crunching required.