Germany racked up one economic success after another for most of this century. But the loss of Russian natural gas due to the war in Ukraine has dealt a severe blow to its industry through higher energy costs.
No way! An industrializing nation with the largest (or second largest) population in the world and without access to cheap natural gas has high emissions? Next you’ll tell me that water is wet and Russia is invading Ukraine.
A core issue that’s dominated Chinese policy is robust access to oil. Meanwhile, the core driver of decreasing emissions in most of the West has been the shift from coal to natural gas.
Nowadays, academics are mixed on the true impact of natural gas because of methane leakage (~3%, but methane being something like a 25x more potent GHG than CO2).
Okay, let’s do it like China.
No way! An industrializing nation with the largest (or second largest) population in the world and without access to cheap natural gas has high emissions? Next you’ll tell me that water is wet and Russia is invading Ukraine.
A core issue that’s dominated Chinese policy is robust access to oil. Meanwhile, the core driver of decreasing emissions in most of the West has been the shift from coal to natural gas.
Nowadays, academics are mixed on the true impact of natural gas because of methane leakage (~3%, but methane being something like a 25x more potent GHG than CO2).