1/3 of Chinese population still lives in the rural areas. They’re still in the process of urbanization and building up new cities. That process results in emissions.
looking up your claim, https://www.mpg.de/4635546/co2-age-structure doesn't quite seem that much of a decline as compared to the giant increase from adulthood until ~60yo (presumably, as you accumulate wealth and require more care). You have to be over 70yo before it goes from ~15 to ~13 tons per capita per year. That's a small minority of people (like 9% if I'm eyeballing it right) who are 70+ in China in 2024 according to https://www.populationpyramid.net/china/2024/ so the remaining 91% will be either stable or increasing emissions
edit: corrected the figure from 3% to 9% after noticing that I looked only at the left number and not the right one on that second graph. Forgot about all the women in the country, whoops
1/3 of Chinese population still lives in the rural areas. They’re still in the process of urbanization and building up new cities. That process results in emissions.
looking up your claim, https://www.mpg.de/4635546/co2-age-structure doesn't quite seem that much of a decline as compared to the giant increase from adulthood until ~60yo (presumably, as you accumulate wealth and require more care). You have to be over 70yo before it goes from ~15 to ~13 tons per capita per year. That's a small minority of people (like 9% if I'm eyeballing it right) who are 70+ in China in 2024 according to https://www.populationpyramid.net/china/2024/ so the remaining 91% will be either stable or increasing emissions
edit: corrected the figure from 3% to 9% after noticing that I looked only at the left number and not the right one on that second graph. Forgot about all the women in the country, whoops