<story><title>CO2 already emitted will warm Earth beyond climate targets, study finds</title><url>https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/climate-targets-1.5861537</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Aunche</author><text>Currently, the richest 10% are responsible for half of all CO2 emissions [1], and you only need $93k be in the richest 10% [2], quite modest by HN standards. Historically, the only way countries have been able to lift themselves out of poverty is by burning fossil fuels for energy. While alternative energy is rapidly advancing, Nigeria isn&amp;#x27;t going to wait decades to build a solar plant when they can build several coal power plants right now.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theguardian.com&amp;#x2F;environment&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;dec&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;worlds-richest-10-produce-half-of-global-carbon-emissions-says-oxfam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theguardian.com&amp;#x2F;environment&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;dec&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;worlds-r...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cnbc.com&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;how-much-money-you-need-to-be-in-the-richest-10-percent-worldwide.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cnbc.com&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;how-much-money-you-need-to-b...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Robotbeat</author><text>So, the figures in that Oxfam report, when that Guardian article was published, was from 2007&amp;#x2F;2008. The report was written in 2015, but the data was already out of date. I mention that because from 2007 to 2019 (figures from 2020 aren&amp;#x27;t available yet), China&amp;#x27;s per capita emissions increased by 55% while those of the West have declined. China&amp;#x27;s per capita emissions have risen from 5.25 tCO2&amp;#x2F;capita in 2007 to 8.12t in 2019 while the UK&amp;#x27;s have dropped to now just 5.45tCO2.&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, your point about solar vs coal is wrong. It takes less time now to build a solar power plant than a coal power plant. Especially for developing countries that don&amp;#x27;t already have substantial port and&amp;#x2F;or rail infrastructure. And this applies somewhat to natural gas, too. It&amp;#x27;s diesel that they tend to run for this reason. Solar, and now solar + storage, can compete just fine with diesel (and solar + storage + diesel is a pretty resilient combination that also can be built out super fast, is very cheap to build and operate, and also happens to get you to like 80-90% carbonfree... so there&amp;#x27;s decent hope out there).</text></comment>
<story><title>CO2 already emitted will warm Earth beyond climate targets, study finds</title><url>https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/climate-targets-1.5861537</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Aunche</author><text>Currently, the richest 10% are responsible for half of all CO2 emissions [1], and you only need $93k be in the richest 10% [2], quite modest by HN standards. Historically, the only way countries have been able to lift themselves out of poverty is by burning fossil fuels for energy. While alternative energy is rapidly advancing, Nigeria isn&amp;#x27;t going to wait decades to build a solar plant when they can build several coal power plants right now.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theguardian.com&amp;#x2F;environment&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;dec&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;worlds-richest-10-produce-half-of-global-carbon-emissions-says-oxfam&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.theguardian.com&amp;#x2F;environment&amp;#x2F;2015&amp;#x2F;dec&amp;#x2F;02&amp;#x2F;worlds-r...&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cnbc.com&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;how-much-money-you-need-to-be-in-the-richest-10-percent-worldwide.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cnbc.com&amp;#x2F;2018&amp;#x2F;11&amp;#x2F;07&amp;#x2F;how-much-money-you-need-to-b...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kumarvvr</author><text>&amp;gt;Historically, the only way countries have been able to lift themselves out of poverty is by burning fossil fuels for energy&lt;p&gt;This is an interesting point, but I don&amp;#x27;t get the cause and effect scenario here.&lt;p&gt;What bothers me is the ideological trap that fossil fuels are the only resources that can be exploited to bring people out of poverty.&lt;p&gt;Are we so lacking in innovation that we cannot come up with sustainable development models?</text></comment>