The article is still biased as hell and couched in the usual "China had" scare language, but here's a few good quotes.

China’s carbon emissions have either peaked already or will do this winter, seven years ahead of schedule. They may plateau for a year or two but will then go into exponential decline for mechanical and unstoppable reasons.

The country’s target of net zero by 2060 is likely to be achieved a decade earlier than previously assumed, and perhaps earlier than in Europe.

Lauri Myllyvirta, co-founder of the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, says China has reached a structural tipping point where the roll-out of renewables is outpacing the rise in electricity demand.

“A drop in power-sector emissions in 2024 is essentially locked in. We’re likely to see a fall in total CO2 emitted in the first half of next year,” he said.

At the risk of overtaxing the reader’s appetite for figures, it is worth spelling out the enormity of what China is doing. The China Electricity Council says the country will add 210 GW of solar this year, twice the entire solar capacity installed in the US to date.

It is not going to stop there. Carbon Brief says China’s output of solar panels was 310 GW in 2022; it will be 500 GW in 2023; and 1000 GW in 2025 – four times the total installation of new solar worldwide last year.

Regarding the scare point of new Chinese coal plants:

The regime is approving two new coal plants a week. It does not mean what many in the West think it means. China is adding one GW of coal power on average as back-up for every six GW of new renewable power. The two go hand in hand.

“The more renewable energy used, the more the need for coal peaking capacity. A large number of coal power units will be idle,” says Chinese coal expert Li Ting.

Obligatory Westoid nonsense about how Xi is evil and he just wants to take over the world with his sinister measures to protect the environment.

Xi seeks global supremacy. He was never going to let climate worries alone hold back China’s rise. But today the two are in perfect alignment. Clean-tech has become the spearhead of China’s global economic conquest, and this changes the thrust of Beijing’s climate diplomacy.

It is no longer possible for foot-draggers to hide behind China. As Chinese emissions roll over and go into free-fall, Xi will become an even bigger problem for them than Western preachers.

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[–] 98 points 2 years ago (1 child)

crazy how stuff happens when you actually try

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  • [–] 88 points 2 years ago (7 children)

    Xi's quest for global supremacy

    sicko-wistful

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  • [–] [S] 98 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    You will have clean energy.

    You will have efficient public transport.

    You will prevent millions from dying of pandemic.

    You will like it.

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  • [–] 85 points 2 years ago* (11 children)

    and perhaps earlier than in Europe.

    shocked-pikachu

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  • [–] [S] 72 points 2 years ago (10 children)
  • [–] 63 points 2 years ago (9 children)

    Tried nothing would be a better reality. Germany listened to the radlibs and closed their nuclear power plants. They are now building brand new coal plants to meet power demands.

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  • [–] 25 points 2 years ago* (3 children)

    Even better, the coal those plants burn contains trace amounts of uranium, and when burned in large quantities those trace amounts turn into significant quantities of radioactive fucking dust. Germans are fucking stupid.

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  • [–] 80 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (6 children)
  • [–] 48 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    I hope that percent grows. The only way the US is going to seriously reduce emissions is by all its junk being made in a country that takes the climate seriously.

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  • [–] 79 points 2 years ago

    BEEN KNOWN

    COMMON CHINA W

    ONLY COUNTRY TO ACTUALLY MEET THEIR CLIMATE AGREEMENT AND DECADES AHEAD chairman-meow chairman-meow chairman-meow chairman-meow chairman-meow chairman-meow chairman-meow

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  • [–] 61 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    Right but what about their oil barons and coal tycoons? Without their capital and funding, Xi is sure to not get re-elected and everyone knows getting re-elected is more important than doing good things.

    Wait nevermind I'm just learning the PRC discarded liberal democracy because it's a fucking scam.

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  • [–] 56 points 2 years ago (8 children)

    The regime is approving two new coal plants a week. It does not mean what many in the West think it means. China is adding one GW of coal power on average as back-up for every six GW of new renewable power. The two go hand in hand.

    For those who don't understand this part in particular. How power grids work is that there's an expected amount of power that needs to be generated at a given time period, but there are times where spikes in use happen. During those times "dirty" energy is used to help level out the spikes as they have the ability to generate energy at a shorter time period faster than green energy, as you do NOT want a power grid to break down (which causes a lot of societal problems, far worse than the emissions that would arise from it.(common result is death in vital buildings that need power))

    While coal isn't ideal for the burning of dirty energy (natural gas burns relatively speaking, cleaner), coal is chosen because coal factories are significantly cheaper, and the scale that china wants to build energy requires the buildings now rather than later, so (hopefully) the coal plants are just temporary for them to rapidly expand their grid, and slowly transition the coal plants down the line to slightly more clean energy.

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  • [–] [S] 43 points 2 years ago (6 children)

    Thanks for the explanation comrade. The article also talks about how coal was chosen because natural gas must be imported and is thus vulnerable to supply shocks. China is apparently also taking measures to implement carbon capture and re-use technologies with newer plants (which will mostly run below capacity most of the time).

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    [–] 51 points 2 years ago

    LEADER

    OF

    THE

    WORLD

    xi-shining

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  • [–] 46 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Between this and the fusion power news earlier this year I am fully willing to believe that China is going to end energy scarcity in this century and leave the US in the stone age.

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    [–] 44 points 2 years ago
    [–] 43 points 2 years ago*

    A lot of this new capacity is rural and mountainous too, perfect for where it's hard to build infrastructure, it doubles as poverty alleviation

    volcel-kamala

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  • [–] 42 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Xi’s quest for global supremacy

    xi-gun

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  • [–] 21 points 2 years ago

    Not being a fucking moron while America let's somebody who thinks global warming is a communist hoax to have disproportionate influence on political decisions.

    The old onion article about how AL queda realized they could just sit back and let America destroy itself continues to be 100% true.

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  • [–] 41 points 2 years ago (4 children)
  • [+] 39 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (6 children)
  • [–] 38 points 2 years ago*

    Carbon emissions have fallen

    Billions must be invested into Green Energy

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  • [–] 37 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    go into exponential decline for mechanical and unstoppable reasons

    :sicko-yes:

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    [–] 32 points 2 years ago (8 children)
  • [–] 31 points 2 years ago

    Some men just want to watch the world burn learn

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  • [–] 28 points 2 years ago*

    How China's curbing of carbon emissions is a genocide to innovation.

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  • [–] 27 points 2 years ago

    Truly communism will save us.

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  • [–] 25 points 2 years ago* (2 children)
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    [–] 21 points 2 years ago

    I'm cooooooooooooooooming!

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  • [–] 20 points 2 years ago (1 child)
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