Noting that greenhouse gas emissions impose global risks, the Obama Administration believes that developing countries such as China and India are responsible for a growing proportion of emissions because of their heavy reliance on carbon intensive fuels, such as coal.
“Greenhouse gas emissions impose global risks. As a result, just as U.S. efforts to reduce emissions benefit other countries, actions that other countries take to mitigate emissions benefit the United States,” said the Obama Administration in its ‘The Economic Report of the President’, to the Congress. In 1992, China’s carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion were half those of the United States and represented 12 per cent of global emissions. By 2008, China’s carbon dioxide emissions represented 22 per cent of global emissions from fossil fuels.