Playing musical chairs with emissions

Here's an interesting milestone: a major developing country is exporting its emissions to a major developed country.

Usually it's the other way around: developed countries export emissions to developing countries. The classic example: as energy-intensive manufacturing industries like steel and aluminum migrate from developed countries to China, to be replaced by, say, services or IT industries, the overall energy used per unit GDP in the developed country goes down, while the overall energy used per unit GDP in the developing country goes up.

However, China has partially reversed the flow, at least in one instance. It's importing liquified natural gas (LNG) from Australia. That natural gas reduces China's energy intensity, to the extent that power generated from that natural gas would otherwise be generated from coal, which is a much dirtier fossil fuel. However, producing the LNG releases carbon into Australia's atmosphere, increasing Australia's total carbon emissions. Voila! China has exported some of its emissions.

(If I'm understanding correctly, the process to prepare, chill, and ship the LNG also significantly increases the total lifecycle emissions of the natural gas as a fuel.)