Whose emissions?

Up to one third of China's emissions come from manufacturing goods destined for consumption abroad being most prominent. Now, a new study by scientists at the Carnegie Institution reaffirms that. The researchers studied trade flows of 57 industrial sectors, from 113 countries and regions and were able to determine the net emissions imported and exported for specific countries.

They found that for most European countries, over one third of emissions linked to goods and services consumed domestically were emitted in another country. In Switzerland, often held up for it's comparatively low per capita carbon emissions, these outsourced emissions actually were higher than domestic emissions. The United States turns out to outsource a total of 11% of consumption-based emissions, mostly to developing nations.

So when a study says that global carbon emissions are rising, the source of those emissions is shifting towards Asia, what does that mean?

In 1992 the world’s major emitters of CO2 were, in order of emissions: the United States, China, Russia, Japan and India. Since 2008, estimates suggest that India passed Japan in 2002, China became the largest emitter in 2006, and India is poised to pass Russia soon.

Is that reason to cap emissions in developing nations or penalize the nation benefiting? Benefits? Well, both are, actually. One by consumption, and the other by production linked growth. So then how does one apportion the emissions?