Is China responsible for climate change? The preceding chapters show that the answer to this question depends on a number of factors, such as the timescale being assessed, China's capabilities and its level of development, whether we seek answers about practical or ethicalnormative issues, and indeed how we define ‘China’ in this context – among other considerations. In this chapter I highlight some these factors before focusing on one that is becoming increasingly important from both practical and normative perspectives: the growing role of the Chinese people, specifically the growing number of them joining the ranks of the world's affluent classes.

One issue that permeates analyses and discussions of China's (and other developing countries’) role in climate change is historical responsibility. If we consider China's practical contribution to the problem of climate change – which many will say infers responsibility under certain circumstances – the timeframe we are considering becomes quite important. Almost regardless of one's ethical viewpoint, on a practical level we cannot say that China is as responsible for historical emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) as are the developed countries of the West if the historical period we are considering begins with the Industrial Revolution. The material benefits of that revolution largely passed China by until quite recently; until the latter part of the 20th century, China was too poor to have a very large impact on the Earth's climate, at least relative to major industrialised countries. However, if we think in terms of the recent past – say, from the late 1970s when China opened to the world and its economic growth began to take off – the question of whether it has been responsible for climate change takes on a new and very important dimension. China’s contributions to climate change started to have profound practical significance in recent decades, and over the last 10 years and more its contribution has been enormous – and for the last half decade it has contributed more to the problem than any other country.

Nevertheless, some will still argue (as the Chinese government does) that its ‘responsibility’ remains very low (or non-existent) because the country's per-capita emissions have been low historically and remain low relative to most developed countries.