Item — HN Reader

> As long as major countries like Germany are keeping their ban on nuclear power

Frankly, it doesn't matter what Germany or other European nations do - their carbon footprint has dramatically decreased.

The issue is everyone else [0]. China (12 GT), the US (5 GT), and India (3 GT) alone represent over half of all global carbon emissions. The EU and UK's combined carbon emissions are half of Asia (excluding China and India) emissions.

Countries like India and Vietnam are expected to see GDP growth in the 6-8% range for the next decade, and both are doubling down on coal [1][2] and other carbon heavy fuels, so emissions are only going to grow further. Any marginal decrease in carbon emissions at this point is too little too late given that much of Asia and South America is expected to see carbon emission grow in the 3-8% range.

[0] - https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-co2-emissions-per-...

[1] - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-05/india-mul...

[2] - https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/vietnam-looks-more-c...

3 comments

Your link shows the US also decreased their carbon footprint, and a big part of the rest of the world stays kinda stable.

India and most of ASEAN (Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, etc) are expected to see GDP grow rates in the 6-8% range for the next decade.

Their carbon footprint is only going to increase as a result.

India [0], Vietnam [1], and others have all doubled down on coal for energy security reasons.

[0] - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-12-05/india-mul...

[1] - https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/vietnam-looks-more-c...

It should be illegal in 2026 to have such a naive view.

co2 per country or capita doesn't mean shit when the world uses China as a factory:

https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/co-emissions-embedded-in-...

The effects of climate change aren't felt on a per capita basis.

Edit: can't reply

> they don't pollute because they're Chinese, they pollute because they're your factory

If that was the case, then global CO2 emissions would have been stagnant for 30 years, not rising.

Sure, but don't blame China when 90% of the shit you buy is made there, they don't pollute because they're Chinese, they pollute because they're your factory

You know why China became the manufacturing center of the world? Because it was lowest cost, with little regulation and lenient policies including environmental ones. Red carpet, special economic zones. Nobody forced them to.

They have to bear responsibility, and to be fair to them, they have taken steps to address that.

I don't see why CO2 emissions should be stagnant. There's now more people than ever, and everyone buys more shit per capita than ever, that's already a good reason for emissions to grow.

Lets just name names. China. India.

And every country which moved their factories there