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from the obama-sharing-world-leadership-with-china dept.
The NYT reports that President Obama spoke at the United Nations Climate Change Summit and challenged China to make the same effort to reduce its greenhouse-gas emissions and join a worldwide campaign to curb global warming. Obama's words were directly focused on putting the onus on China, an essential partner of the United States if a global climate treaty is to be negotiated by 2015. The United States and China bear a “special responsibility to lead,” said Obama, “That’s what big nations have to do.” The United States, Obama said, would meet a pledge to reduce its carbon emissions by 17 percent, from 2005 levels, by 2020—a goal that is in large part expected to be met through proposed EPA regulation.
There were indications that China might be ready with its own plan, although many experts say they will be skeptical until Chinese officials reveal the details. A senior Chinese official said his country would try to reach a peak level of carbon emissions “as early as possible.” That suggested that the Chinese government, struggling with air pollution so extreme that it has threatened economic growth, regularly kept millions of children indoors and ignited street protests, was determined to show faster progress in curbing emissions. In recent years, the Chinese government has sent other signals about addressing carbon pollution, some of them encouraging to environmental experts. “Five years ago, it was almost unimaginable to discuss China putting a cap on carbon, but now that is happening,” said Lo Sze Ping, chief executive officer of the World Wildlife Fund’s office in Beijing. “Chinese leaders have seen that it is imperative to move toward a low-carbon economy.”
(Score: 5, Informative) by keplr on Thursday September 25 2014, @05:59PM
It's only marginally cheaper to make things in China. And when you factor in modern industrial automation and the savings on trans-Pacific shipping, their already small edge [cnn.com] disappears.
I don't respond to ACs.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 25 2014, @06:05PM
We can only hope and pray that soon, after decades of outsourcing to save a couple bucks, it'll be cheaper to insource. If they don't start soon, they won't be able to peddle their products here because nobody will have the money to buy them.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday September 25 2014, @06:12PM
In many cases, the commons are already gone and insourcing would be as hard as moving to cheaper-than-China Vietnam or Burundi
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday September 25 2014, @07:13PM
And this is why there's now talks floating around about what would it take to manufacture in southern Africa. If the population stops being desperate enough to make great sweatshop employees, it's time to pack up and move elsewhere. That's why heavy industry has over the last century moved from Europe to the northern US to the southeastern US to Latin America to Asia.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by richtopia on Thursday September 25 2014, @07:53PM
Another issue that I have heard about insourcing is that lack of infrastructure in the USA. Even for products that were manufactured here 20 years ago, the supporting suppliers are missing, so you still need to ship these products overseas.
(Score: 2) by khallow on Friday September 26 2014, @02:00AM
Except that it didn't disappear. The article noted that a) the Apple phone was still 9% cheaper than the Moto X which is pretty significant (especially given that the Moto X probably won't match the manufacturing quality of the current Apple product), and b) that the Moto X is merely assembled in the US. And this cost difference only holds for stuff sold in the US! If you're selling somewhere else, then it makes US manufacture even less competitive.
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Friday September 26 2014, @02:16AM
That's consistent with some inside info I've heard about iPads -- extra cost to make them in the U.S., $6 more than the $38 they cost to make in China.
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.