Air Pollution in China Prime Culprit for Climate Change Woes?

Air pollution was one of the main issues discussed at the recent United Nations Climate Summit. 

The UN is hoping to come up with a deal that will reduce carbon emission world-wide. 

Because carbon is a greenhouse gas, it will trap heat in Earth’s atmosphere, resulting in increased temperature that end up affecting the weather, the polar ice caps, and the global sea level. 

Sources of carbon pollution include cars and the burning of oil and coal. 

Countries with emerging economies are burning a lot of coal as they seek to up production and grow their economies with little regard for the environment. 

Chief among those coal-burning countries responsible for pumping huge amounts of carbon is China. 

According to the Global Carbon Project, China emits the most carbon in the world, being responsible for 28 percent of the global carbon emission. 

Not only did China not arrest their carbon emission levels, they increased it by 4.2 percent last year, which then caused the global carbon emission level to go up by 2.3 percent. 

The logical solution would be for China and other developing countries to switch to cleaner forms of energy like wind or solar energy.

In the long run, it would help save costs and even keep the population in these countries in better health due to less pollution.

On the flipside, clean energy requires an enormous initial investment, which could slow down economies that need to grow and progress. 

This creates a paradoxical situation that cannot be very easily resolved.