this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2023
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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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[–] [email protected] 98 points 11 months ago (1 children)

crazy how stuff happens when you actually try

[–] [email protected] 69 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Excuse me sweety, but if the Free Market wanted us to actually try, it would've have made trying result in more treats.

[–] [email protected] 88 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Xi's quest for global supremacy

sicko-wistful

[–] [email protected] 98 points 11 months ago (4 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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[–] [email protected] 33 points 11 months ago

threatening us with a good time

[–] [email protected] 85 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

and perhaps earlier than in Europe.

shocked-pikachu

[–] [email protected] 72 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 63 points 11 months ago (6 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.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 11 months ago

Radlibs, not even once.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months 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.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 11 months ago

All coal has trace amounts of radionuclides. In fact, coal power plants are emitting more radioactivity per mWt than nuclear power plants.

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[–] [email protected] 80 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 48 points 11 months ago (1 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.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 11 months ago (4 children)

nah, if that happens, dems will start rolling coal en-masse out of spite, and eat even more beef.

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[–] [email protected] 79 points 11 months 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

[–] [email protected] 61 points 11 months ago (1 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.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Got me in the first half and got me to look for an @

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[–] [email protected] 56 points 11 months ago (2 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.

[–] [email protected] 43 points 11 months ago (4 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).

[–] [email protected] 30 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Yeah China's coal plants are way more advanced than America's at this point. 90% of China's 100 most efficient coal plants are ultra-supercritical, while it's only 1% for America.

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 11 months ago

LEADER

OF

THE

WORLD

xi-shining

[–] [email protected] 46 points 11 months ago (3 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.

[–] [email protected] 54 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I can also foresee the stupidest of all possible futures where China is offering free fusion tech to the US but America refuses to implement it because ~~power companies can't profit off of abundant energy~~ China is genociding the hydrogen atoms.

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 43 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months 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

[–] [email protected] 42 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Xi’s quest for global supremacy

xi-gun

[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months 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.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 11 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 58 points 11 months ago (1 children)

RIP to the talking point of 'why should we reduce our emissions if China's are so high?'

[–] [email protected] 69 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Hello to the talking point "China is lying about reducing their emissions".

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 11 months ago

*China bad, I'm guessing

[–] [email protected] 39 points 11 months ago (2 children)

This is incredible. I don't think there is any shot that the US and EU hit their targets. Imagine being on track or even ahead.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I can legit imagine the U.S just failing to meet standards and just offsetting it with China's falling emissions.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 11 months ago (2 children)

They literally immediatly started making excuses of why it was unreasonable to expect them too instead of actually trying.

And most of those xcuses were "China isn't going to do it so why should we"

China continuing to lap America in pretty much every aspect.

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Carbon emissions have fallen

Billions must be invested into Green Energy

[–] [email protected] 37 points 11 months ago (1 children)

go into exponential decline for mechanical and unstoppable reasons

:sicko-yes:

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[–] [email protected] 32 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago (6 children)

$546 billion last year. Probably about that every year.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 11 months ago (1 children)

But think about all the foreign wars China missed out by wasting that money on green energy.

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[–] [email protected] 31 points 11 months ago

Some men just want to watch the world ~~burn~~ learn

[–] [email protected] 28 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

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

[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago

Truly communism will save us.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago

:xi-terachad:

Death to America

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 11 months ago

I'm cooooooooooooooooming!

[–] [email protected] 20 points 11 months ago (1 children)
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