China Surpasses Green Electricity Goal (50%) 2 Years Ahead Of Schedule

[Economy 52,838]

https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/More-Than-Half-Of-Chinas-Power-Capacity-Is-Now-Non-Fossil-Fuels.html

 

China's power grid is now over 50% green energy, a feat originally thought they'd reach only by 2025 being 2 years ahead of schedule

 

China continues efforts to close Coal fired plants as fast as possible and spends the most money in the world on green transition, even more than the US despite the US being a larger economy (that being said the US is ahead of China in most climate transitions as it started them earlier)

[bionic 50,111]

Set even more ambitious targets this time  

[Economy 52,838]

8 hours ago, bionic said:

Set even more ambitious targets this time  

Well their goal wasn't just to get to 50% that was just a milestone in the timeline

 

China has this reputation for some reason that they are doing nothing for the environment which is actually completely untrue (I remember Carly Fiorina spilled this like during campaigning like 1000 times) as they have been investing A LOT in solar energy and subsidies to encourage electric cars

 

Not surprisingly as a developing Nation they are behind the developed world in decarbonization as their efforts started later but at least now they are going agressively

 

Some other developing Nations that also pollute a lot like India are not doing half as much about it

[Fuffy 1,049]

China messes up on a lot of things but their environmental policy isn't terrible.

I think the West unfairly gets a bad rep, but one thing we need to be mindful is that it's generally easier for Western countries to reduce their fossil fuel use because they don't need to manufacture as many as goods and get them from fossil-using countries. So our carbon emissions as consumers are indirectly integrated to China's environmental performance. 

I hear China wants to overtake Japan in electric vehicles will be a good development if so. Chinese companies have already done it for phones and computer technology.

That said, we should definitely look to "de-risk" the relationship with China as soon as possible. 

[Economy 52,838]

8 hours ago, Fuffy said:

China messes up on a lot of things but their environmental policy isn't terrible.

I think the West unfairly gets a bad rep, but one thing we need to be mindful is that it's generally easier for Western countries to reduce their fossil fuel use because they don't need to manufacture as many as goods and get them from fossil-using countries. So our carbon emissions as consumers are indirectly integrated to China's environmental performance. 

I hear China wants to overtake Japan in electric vehicles will be a good development if so. Chinese companies have already done it for phones and computer technology.

That said, we should definitely look to "de-risk" the relationship with China as soon as possible. 

Yeah. It's good that developed Nations have made the progress they have but ur point often gets missed, developed Nations still have a lot of indirect impact by what we consume that is manufactured elsewhere, and they only manufacture as much as they do because we consume a lot

 

As for China, I'm not totally surprised they are actually putting some effort into reducing pollution and emissions

 

#1 pollution has become a big political problem and the population is demanding cleaner air. While China is far from a democracy, they are not North Korea or Cuba either. The population and their demands still carry some influence

 

#2 despite all their flaws one thing the Chinese do well is they tend think ahead in planning step by step and the future. That general tendency in thinking may actually make them genuinely care at least a little bit about the environment and the negative economic consequences they will face if nothing is done about global warming. I don't see Xi and his party crying about the dead fish but they do know the economy and quality of life will suffer as we deteriorate and that they certainly care about

 

The idea that they don't care at all may be an unfair assumption on the part of the West which perhaps explains why people don't realize how much China has actually already done in progress for the environment yet the general perception is (incorrectly) that they've barely done anything.

 

Edit: about de-risking I think the market is slowly going to pull back from having such a high percentage of trade come from China. They are no longer the preferred place for many manufacturing companies. 

 

For high end stuff where labor costs are a smaller share of the pie, companies are rethinking overseas strategies and prefer to be more local to the US. As for the cheap type of manufacturing, China no longer has the cheapest labor anymore so more growth is occuring in India, Bangladesh, Vietnam etc for the cheap type of industries (tho China will remain a huge player for years to come still because of the presence it already has and not all factories already there are gonna move)