Confronting the "China Excuse:" The Political Logic of Climate Change Adaptation

In July of this year, President Obama announced a plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from electricity generation by 32 percent from 2005 levels by the year 2030. As anticipated, this has kicked off a furious debate, with critics characterizing Obama’s Clean Power Plan as a job killer, and offering the “China excuse” for opposing it. After all, why should the US reduce emissions when China, the biggest current emitter of greenhouse gases, has not committed to mandatory reductions? This is a powerful argument in a period of economic crisis, growing income inequalities, and the fear that American jobs are being shipped abroad to countries such as China that have not committed to mandatory emission reductions.