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- cross-posted to:
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/55394990
- China’s annual emissions have risen by 8.8 billion metric tons since 2000, accounting for roughly 62% of the entire global increase.
- China’s national emissions are now about 2.5 times higher than the U.S., even though its per capita emissions remain lower.
- Despite record solar and wind installations, China still burns more than half the world’s coal, and coal-fired power is rising again.
China’s per capita emissions remain below those of the United States. The U.S. and Europe have contributed more cumulative carbon dioxide to the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution. China has installed more wind and solar capacity than any other country.
All of those statements are true.
[…]
But none of those facts erase the central point: China’s total carbon emissions have risen dramatically, and that rise has been the largest single contributor to the increase in global emissions this century.
[…]
China’s annual emissions are now roughly two and a half times those of the United States. That is not a minor difference. It makes China the world’s largest annual emitter by a wide margin.
The trend is even more important. According to the Statistical Review of World Energy, global annual carbon dioxide emissions have risen by about 14 billion metric tons this century. China’s annual emissions have risen by about 8.8 billion metric tons over that same period. That means China accounts for roughly 62% of the global increase.
[…]
The renewable energy point also needs nuance.
[…]
China is not yet replacing fossil fuels fast enough to prevent emissions growth […] It is building renewables, but it is also responsible for over 50% of the world’s coal consumption. It is electrifying transportation, but it is also expanding industrial output. It is adding clean energy, but total energy demand has grown so quickly that renewables have not been able to fully offset fossil fuel growth.
That is the key point. The emissions outcome depends not only on how much renewable energy a country installs, but also on how fast total energy demand grows.
[…]
Any serious climate discussion has to hold those facts at the same time.
If the question is cumulative responsibility, the U.S. and Europe carry a large burden. If the question is per capita emissions, the U.S. still looks bad. If the question is renewable deployment, China looks impressive.
But if the question is why annual global carbon dioxide emissions have risen so rapidly this century, China is the biggest part of the answer.
That is not a myth. It is what the data show.
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Come on, this is word bending propaganda.
so rapidly this century,
This century, because emission growth is declining, almost flattening out.
https://www.worldometers.info/co2-emissions/china-co2-emissions/
Read the data in your own link: China’s emissions rose this century from less then 4 billion tons to more than 13 billions.
And this is only one part of the story. Read the article. Propaganda is what you are permanently doing.
Here you can see the countries and their contributions to climate change (hint: China, together with Russia, ranks among the worst).
Propaganda is what you are permanently doing.
This is a fucking insane thing to say for an account that exclusively posts anti-chinese propaganda.
I was curious and yeah, almost all of that guys comments are anti-china lol. I suppose if you have super tankies on here it’s only natural to have super anti-tankies.
What’s the difference between critique and propaganda tho? As any critique against China seems to warrant being called a bot and spreading propaganda on here.
Just the other day I said a lot of china’s water is not safe to drink and you shouldn’t drink tapwater in china and was immediately called a bot lol. Someone else posted 3 sources but since one source was from 2023 it was therefore outdated and we are guilty of spreading propaganda lol.
What’s the difference between critique and propaganda tho?
I don’t think its meaningful beyond whether the writer thinks the specific criticism is good or bad, like the distinction between patriotism and nationalism.
Similar to understanding that everything is political, everything is propaganda; the effects of which facts are relevant, what aspects to emphasize, and framing you choose can’t be escaped. The important thing is to look at the message behind their words; is the only room for discussion “fuck China, support hostility against them, learn nothing from them” or is it more “here is the outcome from this specific context, what lessons can be applied to other contexts”.
Just the other day I said a lot of china’s water is not safe to drink and you shouldn’t drink tapwater in china and was immediately called a bot
Don’t tell them about the toilet situation over here lol.
China currently installs more renewable than coal or gas. So renewables have the higher pace. Coal is ahead, but will be caught.
Of course China had grown conventional energy consumption to be able to compete with the west. Now that they can, they push renewables. My guess is to be energy independent and not so much for nature, but for nature that doesn’t matter.
I think hiding the current pace in the two decade aggregate is misleading. As Europeans we have to ask why China can do it while we are half asleep and only do the bare minimum.
In 2024, China’s installed solar capacity rose 45.2% and wind capacity rose 18%. By the end of that year, China had 890 gigawatts of solar capacity and 520 gigawatts of wind capacity.
1410 GW, the increase should be 438 GW.
Not the same year, but the numbers should stay similar:
Last year, China installed almost 70 gigawatts of new coal power capacity more than it took off the grid.
Nevertheless, gas-fired power capacity could see faster growth in the 14th Five-Year Plan, likely adding 40 to 50 GW of new capacity by 2025. The buildout will boost the gas fleet to 140–150 GW, up 50 per cent from current levels,
Do you read your own links? The last one from Oxford Energy is a report published in 2020 (!) about the 14th fyp that has ended (and this is even the better part of your comment as it doesn’t even foster your own argument).
Here is another analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air:
The power sector target is weak. The target for non-fossil sources to provide 50% of power generation by 2030 still leaves roughly half of China’s electricity generation coming from fossil fuels. Starting from the plan’s 2025 baseline of 42.3% non-fossil generation, if total power generation grows by 5% per year, total generation would be about 27.6% higher by 2030. Under a 50% non-fossil share, fossil fuel generation, especially from coal, could still rise by around 10.6% over the period and the target would still be met. The plan reiterates that coal consumption should peak during the 15th FYP period, but it has no quantitative cap on coal generation or capacity, nor any explicit roadmap for phasing down coal.
The new carbon intensity target for the power sector is even more conservative. The plan requires power sector carbon emissions per unit of generation to fall by more than 10% from 2025 level by 2030. Directionally, that is positive. But it does not imply an absolute fall in power-sector emissions. With 5% annual growth in power generation, a 10% reduction in carbon intensity would still allow power sector carbon emissions to increase by roughly 15% over the period, or almost 3% per year. To keep absolute power-sector emissions flat by 2030, carbon intensity would need to fall by roughly 22% if power generation grows by 5% per year. That makes the target look modest compared with recent progress. Ember estimates that China’s power sector carbon intensity fell to 525gCO2/kWh in 2025, down 5% from 2024. China’s official 2024 national electricity carbon footprint factor also fell by 6.9% year on year. [Emphasis mine.]
Addition: And, again, the Chinese Communist Party’s own 15th five-year plan says that fossil fuel energy consumption would increase by 8-10%, reversing the slow-down in fossil fuel energy consumption during the 14th FYP period. At the same time, China’s own goals for non-fossil energy additions would see China’s annual green energy additions fall by more than half by 2030.
as it doesn’t even foster your own argument
Why? New coal and gas capacity didn’t exceed the renewable capacity.
The target for non-fossil sources to provide 50% of power generation by 2030 still leaves roughly half of China’s electricity generation coming from fossil fuels.
It’s still better than the 42.5 EU target and I think I don’t have to look up the US.
https://www.eea.europa.eu/en/analysis/indicators/share-of-energy-consumption-from?activeAccordion
But it does not imply an absolute fall in power-sector emissions.
Of course. China is still a developing country. The whole world wants to live like us and not only China will expand. It’s clear since forever that this will burn the earth but we haven’t adjusted our living standards when we could have led the world to other living conditions. E.g. we knew it was foolish but we introduced SUVs instead of expanding public transport.
Neither China nor the rest of the world have an obligation to hold back. We will burn together. It’s the more impressive that China is investing in renewables.
China’s own goals for non-fossil energy additions would see China’s annual green energy additions fall by more than half by 2030.
That’s an interesting fact. They have the production capacity, why would they stop replacing everything? Do you have a source? I think that’s an important post.
I would like to state that I am open for China criticism but it shouldn’t distract from our own shortcomings.
What I have noticed is that the solar and wind power plants are likely measured in peak production so that the numbers are not as impressive as they seem.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_China
In 2020, as a part of the Central Committee’s fourteenth five-year plan, a target of 20% total energy production from non-fossil fuel sources by 2025 was set.[6][7] As of February 2026, China’s clean electricity capacity reached 52%, exceeding its fossil fuel-based electricity generation for the first time.[8] Electricity generation from renewable energy was about 35% of total electricity, while the renewable share in total energy consumption was much lower.
But if they keep their pace, those numbers don’t matter. They can’t be much better than that:
In 2024, more wind turbines and solar panels were installed in China than in the rest of the world combined.
I am looking forward to your source that they will scale down.