The United States probably threw away the last prayer of credibility it had on global warming at this past week's U.N. conference in Bali. Despie an embarrassing last-minute capitulation, the Bush administration proved that the U.S. is unapologetically the biggest, most arrogant polluter on the planet.
So it's not surprising that China is less than interested in taking lectures about its emissions from the U.S. This is a problem. The Bali conference was little more than a meeting to set up a meeting about a meeting. There are urgent issues concerning emissions that could have an outsized effect at reducing greenhouse gases. China's trucks, for example.
Read how after the jump.
There are roughly 10 million diesel trucks on Chinese roads. Because of the explosive growth in these vehicles, fuel is rationed. So even as roads get better, many trucks spend as much as 10 hours idling in line at fueling stations only to be given a quarter of a tank ("Time" recently quoted a driver: "When a Chinese trucker isn't eating rice, he's eating diesel"). Worse, the diesel that is used throughout China contains roughly 130 times as much sulphur as fuel sold in the U.S.
Most Chinese truckers can't afford cleaner trucks. And removing sulphur from diesel is an expensive step in refining--a step the government is reluctant to take because it would raise prices at the pump, which could retard economic growth. But international incentives could be put in place that would require a cleaner grade of fuel the world around. It's just that the United States doesn't have any right to suggest them.
