While it's certainly true that much manufacturing has moved to other countries, that's still not actually the entire explanation.
Because this effect of globalization has been going on since the 70's and the carbon emissions have still steadily increased in the entire western world year after year.
That's because we drive a lot more cars now then we did in the 70's, and because we consume much, much more energy with all our computers and cell phones and TV's and everything else we want.
Sure, each individual unit has become more frugal and consume less energy - but we have shitloads more of them and our populations are always increasing so the consumption has still been going up.
Until we realized we really have to make an effort and the western world at least started reducing the speed of the increase in carbon emissions. And a few countries have also actually managed to decrease their overall carbon emissions - often by moving their energy production over to renewable sources.
And according to it, between 1996 and 2006 Germany reduced their carbon emissions by 4%, Sweden by 15% and Denmark by a whopping 19% - while other, comparable nations, like France increased their total carbon emission by 7%, Finland by 9% and the US by 7% as well.
Now these are total carbon emission numbers and counted per capita as you should do when you compare nations of varying population sizes, there are still big differences - the US is the per capita world "leader" in carbon emissions while most European countries produce far less.
But it still shows there are differences even between rich, developed nations with comparable abilities that can't simply be explained by manufacturing moving abroad.
It's not like much of Sweden's and Denmark's manufacturing moved abroad between 1996 and 2006, while domestic manufacturing increased in France, Finland and the US at the same time.
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@Kuusi
While it's certainly true that much manufacturing has moved to other countries, that's still not actually the entire explanation.
Because this effect of globalization has been going on since the 70's and the carbon emissions have still steadily increased in the entire western world year after year.
That's because we drive a lot more cars now then we did in the 70's, and because we consume much, much more energy with all our computers and cell phones and TV's and everything else we want.
Sure, each individual unit has become more frugal and consume less energy - but we have shitloads more of them and our populations are always increasing so the consumption has still been going up.
Until we realized we really have to make an effort and the western world at least started reducing the speed of the increase in carbon emissions. And a few countries have also actually managed to decrease their overall carbon emissions - often by moving their energy production over to renewable sources.
I used the chart in this article as a source:
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/datablog/2009/sep/02/carbon-emissions-per-person-capita
And according to it, between 1996 and 2006 Germany reduced their carbon emissions by 4%, Sweden by 15% and Denmark by a whopping 19% - while other, comparable nations, like France increased their total carbon emission by 7%, Finland by 9% and the US by 7% as well.
Now these are total carbon emission numbers and counted per capita as you should do when you compare nations of varying population sizes, there are still big differences - the US is the per capita world "leader" in carbon emissions while most European countries produce far less.
But it still shows there are differences even between rich, developed nations with comparable abilities that can't simply be explained by manufacturing moving abroad.
It's not like much of Sweden's and Denmark's manufacturing moved abroad between 1996 and 2006, while domestic manufacturing increased in France, Finland and the US at the same time.