China, with twice as many people as all the world's rich nations combined, is just beginning to enter an era of mass consumption. Energy consumption in China, according to author and critic Ross Gelbspan, rose 208 percent between 1970 and 1990. Its coal consumption will double in the next decade. If the west tries to hold the developing world to western standards of pollution control, it will impose added costs on the development of poor nations. But if China and the other poor countries are given a waiver from standards, the toll on the environment will soar.
Rich nations cause most of the problem because their consumption levels are so much higher.
Before wealthy societies lecture poor ones on pollution, the rich countries need to clean up their own acts, and perhaps subsidize the costs of repairing the worldwide damage they've already caused by helping to underwrite new technologies for all nations. This approach follows the U.S. acid rain program, which lets polluting industries meet emission limits either by cutting their own pollution, or by purchasing the right to pollute from other companies that have invested in cleaner technology and have certificates to spare. Clinton hopes western private capital will pay much of the cost, but this is unrealistic. Under the Clinton approach, poor countries would have to absorb huge costs. Global warming puts back on the table the awkward issue of increased development aid from rich countries to poor ones.