This is probably inevitable tbh. Climate Change will affect the global south worse than the west. So at some point the west is going to actively try to make emissions worse in order to "punish" the rest of the world for opposing colonialism.
My read is not that. The "news" article is basically lamenting how the UK/Europe is handicapping itself "green" regulations, so their industry moves into evil China's realm. And that this action doesn't even do its purported goal of reducing CO2 emissions because he says that China "continues to build more new coal-fired power plants than the rest of the world combined."
I'm not sure if that claim is true, but his argument is not, "therefore we need to pass laws/tariffs on CO2-produced goods" for the sake of the planet. His point is the green regulations will enslave the west to China. Literally. "The inevitable end result will be subservience to China."
I think you misunderstand me, I agree with your point. If anything I was going further than you were, I was saying that the west will actively increase emissions in order to make life harder for people in the global south as a form of "revenge" as the west slips into irrelevance on the international stage.