Here's a good article from the WSJ regarding China and it's fantasies of meeting its climate goals:
WSJ - China’s Ambitious Climate Goals Collide With Reality, Imperiling Global Efforts
Here are the first several paragraphs, in case you can't get past the paywall. The actual article is rather lengthy, but a really good report on why China will never kick the coal habit.
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Beijing commits to net-zero emissions before 2060, but for years to come it will continue burning a lot of coal to keep its economy charging ahead
By Sha Hua and Phred Dvorak
Oct. 27, 2021 11:01 am ET
China, the world’s largest greenhouse-gas polluter, is heading to Glasgow climate talks next week with a bold agenda: For the first time, it promises to take major steps to wean itself off fossil fuels, committing to net-zero emissions before 2060.
But in the coming decade, the country says, its carbon emissions will continue to rise, peaking sometime before 2030.
China’s climate pledges are bumping up against realities on the ground. The world’s No. 2 economy is so large and still growing so quickly that it might not be technically possible, let alone politically palatable, for the country’s leaders to move faster.
Earlier this year, Beijing pushed a range of measures to discourage the use of coal and control emissions. In late August, China’s top climate and energy official, Vice Premier Han Zheng, convened an online meeting of provincial leaders in Beijing, where he admonished them to “resolutely curb the blind development” of high-emissions projects like coal plants.
A month later, amid escalating coal shortages and power outages, Mr. Han told leaders of state-owned energy companies that although those curbs were still important, the priority was to get coal-power generators cranking again. “Increase coal supplies by any means necessary,” he told the closed-door gathering, according to two people familiar with the discussion and a summary of the meeting seen by The Wall Street Journal.
Coal powers around 56% of the country’s industry-heavy economy, a major reason China accounts for more than a quarter of the planet’s carbon emissions.
Tenchusatsu |
