Actually China is leading the planet on renewables deployment.
I haven’t combed through the data in a minute, but I want to also say that they’re also leading in fossil fuel deployment too. Probably is due to their population size than anything else.
Don’t worry though: America can’t stand that China is doing better than them at something, so we’re going to try to punish them and frame them as the bad guys since America can be the only one espousing leadership, not the Big Bad East.
No.
But neither are the US and I don’t think they ever were.
For now, I’d say the EU are the less bad of the biggest (EU, Russia, China, India, and the US) but even we aren’t the good guys.
I haven’t combed through the data in a minute, but I want to also say that they’re also leading in fossil fuel deployment too.
Yup, China is also leading the planet on new coal plant construction. As of 2 months ago, it seemed to be on track to add 80GW of coal generation capacity in 2024 alone, and accounts for more than 90% of new coal construction.
In context, what we’re seeing is massive, massive expansion of electricity generation and transmission capacity, both clean and dirty, in China. We can expect China to increase its total carbon emissions each year to be closer to the West, while the United States reduces its own from a much higher starting point. Maybe the two countries will cross in per capita emissions around 2030 if current trends continue, but there’s no guarantee that current trends will continue: will the United States continue to shift from coal to gas? Where does grid scale storage, electrification of passenger vehicles, demand shifting, or dispatchable carbon free power go from here, in a future Trump administration? What’s going to happen with the Chinese economy over the next 5 years? What technology will be invented to change things?
Actually China is leading the planet on renewables deployment.
I haven’t combed through the data in a minute, but I want to also say that they’re also leading in fossil fuel deployment too. Probably is due to their population size than anything else.
Don’t worry though: America can’t stand that China is doing better than them at something, so we’re going to try to punish them and frame them as the bad guys since America can be the only one espousing leadership, not the Big Bad East.
Are China the good guys now?
No. But neither are the US and I don’t think they ever were. For now, I’d say the EU are the less bad of the biggest (EU, Russia, China, India, and the US) but even we aren’t the good guys.
Yup, China is also leading the planet on new coal plant construction. As of 2 months ago, it seemed to be on track to add 80GW of coal generation capacity in 2024 alone, and accounts for more than 90% of new coal construction.
By way of comparison, the US peaked in total coal plant capacity in 2011 at 318GW, and has since closed about 134GW of capacity, with more to come.
In context, what we’re seeing is massive, massive expansion of electricity generation and transmission capacity, both clean and dirty, in China. We can expect China to increase its total carbon emissions each year to be closer to the West, while the United States reduces its own from a much higher starting point. Maybe the two countries will cross in per capita emissions around 2030 if current trends continue, but there’s no guarantee that current trends will continue: will the United States continue to shift from coal to gas? Where does grid scale storage, electrification of passenger vehicles, demand shifting, or dispatchable carbon free power go from here, in a future Trump administration? What’s going to happen with the Chinese economy over the next 5 years? What technology will be invented to change things?
Thanks for sharing!