China’s success with renewable energy should be an inspiration to the world and it appears like when green energy is ready for prime time, that we’ll be buying the technology and goods from them. As I’ve told my conservative friends many times in the past, this is why you subsidize emerging technology yes it may be expensive to implement now but it would have been better to be the leader and sell our technology than to buy someone else’s. Sigh short term thinking that’s always their problem…
In 2016, Chinese coal consumption fell for the third consecutive year, Beijing reports, while it installed almost twice as many solar panels as it had in 2015, which was also a record-setting year. Beijing projects both trends will continue in 2017.
China’s solar installation target for 2020 is likely to be achieved in 2018, which as Greenpeace’s Energy Desk noted in January, is “a pretty impressive feat given that the target was set only a couple of months ago.”
All of these policies have helped make China a new global leader in climate action, as their own CO2 emissions have plateaued and declined since 2013.
Source: ThinkProgress
The bold emphasis is mine. While the Western world is spewing out CO2 like there’s no tomorrow and saying China & India have to be on board or else there’s no point in trying to combat climate change, China has taken the lead and its CO2 emissions are actually declining!
President Trump scrapped Obama’s climate change plans and Canada is no better, our internationally “impressive” PM Justin Trudeau is maintaining Harper’s fossil fuel policy, great…
China is dealing from both ends of the deck. They want to be rid of their dependency on fossil fuels yet they build ILLEGAL islands in the South China Seas in order to lay claim to the gas, oil, and other natural resources in the region. Why do this if they want to move to a green economy / environment?
I’m not surprised at all that they’d want to control the South China sea, resources like that are useful beyond fueling cars or used for power plants. Of course I’m with you there that China’s actions are wrong in that area but their record on investments in renewable energy is commendable (and separate) and something the rest of the world should follow.