Chinese President Xi and US President Biden recently met in San Francisco. According to CNN “both countries agreed to economy-wide reductions of all greenhouse gases in their international climate commitments for 2035, including carbon dioxide, methane and hydrofluorocarbons.”
Does anyone reading that sentence actually believe China takes climate change seriously...?
China consumes 6 times more coal than the USA.
The world’s 2400 coal-fired plants have about 2100 GW of capacity. Last year, alone, China built 43GW of new capacity.
China has 243 GW of new coal-fired plants under construction or approved. That’s over 10% of the entire world capacity.
Beyond the 243 GW already in the works, China has another 149GW announced. Overall China’s coal-fired capacity is on track to rise by 23% by 2030.
Interestingly, here are ways we individuals encourage China:
Buying from Amazon. (even NBC understands the link between coal burnt in China and the products sold on the internet)
Putting up solar panels. (Over 80% of solar panels are built in China…primarily via coal-powered electricity)
Driving an Electric Vehicle. (Nearly 80% of the world’s batteries are built in China…primarily via coal- powered electricity)
Meanwhile, our government encourages more coal burning in China, by making energy production impossibly costly here in the USA:
The EPA implements rules that leave US coal-fired power plants “…with no choice but to close.”
The EPA is rolling out new oil and gas rules that will cause a sharp increase in prices.
The PA DEP has rolled out new oil and gas rules in Pennsylvania.
If you care about the truth, here is the biggest story in electricity generation: clean-burning natural gas has become our nation’s primary source of electricity! In 2015 natural gas surpassed coal, and today NATURAL GAS POWERS OVER 40% of our electricity (with coal at 20%). The use of natural gas has led to A REDUCTION IN EMISSIONS in the United States.
So…we can pretend we care about climate change while buying from Amazon and celebrating fake CNN headlines. Or we can look at real data.
Source: Financial Times
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