this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2024
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China is on track to reach clean energy targets six years early (electrek.co)
submitted 3 months ago by sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al to c/energy@slrpnk.net
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This is hilarious because the sentiment (look at me trying not to use provocative language) regarding China has meant there's been an outwardly view that they only care about polluting and yet, not only are they producing the bulk of the world's solar panels, they're actually implementing green energy policies at a rapid rate. Funny thing is, this isn't even a pro-China thing, it's a pro-planet thing. We absolutely need our biggest nations to lead the way in replacing coal and the likes with renewables. I will happily celebrate the small wins along the way.

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[–] MrEff@lemmy.world 26 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (2 children)

While China is quickly becoming a global leader in clean energy adoption, it still has some work to do. The nation still relies heavily on coal-fired power plants and will need to retire those facilities in favor of more sustainable options in order to truly offset its CO2 emissions.

This is a bit of an understatement. China leads the world in both renewable energy usage AND coal use. And by a lot. Then they also lead in steel production with older blast and coke furnaces that are super CO2 intensive. And in concrete production and use, also super CO2 intensive.

I'm not trying to shit on the progress they have made. It is nice to see them taking this more serious than some others. But this article kind of green washes their energy, overplaying their renewables and not even mentioning their dirty power.

[–] sushibowl@feddit.nl 5 points 3 months ago

China leads the world in both renewable energy usage AND coal use. And by a lot.

They also have some of the most people (is India ahead nowadays? I can't keep track), and they manufacture tons of things meant for export to other (including western) countries.

The point being, everybody is greenwashing. China is greenwashing their energy mix. Western countries greenwash their own energy by essentially outsourcing the production and thus pollution. And this isn't about China really. I could say the same for a bunch of countries.

The small consolation is that beside all the green propaganda, some progress is at least being made. Probably not enough, but some.

[–] immutable@lemm.ee 2 points 3 months ago

True but we should also realize that China didn’t just sit around one day and go “let’s set up a bunch of coal fired power plants and steel mills for funsies.”

Most western countries that have run the neoliberalism playbook have gone “let’s let China build shit, we will do service, finance, and knowledge work instead” but we still want manufactured goods. I just think it’s important to bring this context when people point to China’s coal use as if they are just burning it for fun. They are burning it because we wanted cheaper goods and if we hadn’t have offshored that industry to them we’d be burning it.

We pay them to burn the coal and then complain that China is a polluter.

[–] OsrsNeedsF2P@lemmy.ml 15 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

In addition to wind power, China has fully embraced solar as an alternative source of clean energy. In June, it activated a 3.5-gigawatt, 33,000-acre solar farm outside Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital – the largest of its kind in the world. Not to be outdone, China announced plans for a behemoth 8 MW solar farm in the works as part of an $11 billion integrated energy project led by state-owned power company China Three Gorges Renewables Group.

These numbers are confusing. China uses about 3000 gigawatts of energy, 3.5 is 0.1%, but then it acts like 8MW will make the difference, but there's 1000 MW in a gigawatt? So that's like, 3.508 gigawatts, aka still 0.1%?

I know this is far from everything China is doing, but it was just one piece of the article I decided to dig into. It would be nice to see numbers on what China's goal is, how close they are, and how much they're consuming, all in one graph

[–] Rentlar@lemmy.ca 15 points 3 months ago (2 children)

https://electrek.co/2024/07/02/china-is-building-a-mammoth-8-gw-solar-farm/

I think the 8MW was a typo in the article, the link is to an article on the same site discussing an 8GW farm.

[–] JohnDClay@sh.itjust.works 9 points 3 months ago (1 children)

But also, 8GW would be the nameplate capacity, (maximum power) you will get maybe a third of that on average depending on clouds, season, and time of day/night.

[–] clutchtwopointzero@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago

Still better than nothing, or institutionalized nothing as it is the way in US states

[–] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Eh, gigas, megas, close enough

[–] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 8 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Clearly they low-balled their 2030 estimate if they already reached it

[–] fr0g@piefed.social 8 points 3 months ago (1 children)

A lot of countries are ahead in their targets for solar because solar has gotten so much cheaper so rapidly. In general renewable technologies have gotten cheaper faster than even the most ambitious predictions foresaw. So it might very well not be a low-balling thing.

[–] poVoq@slrpnk.net 3 points 3 months ago

Well, they certainly might have thought let's better not commit to uncertain goals, but the consistent low-balling of climate targets compared to pretty much everyone else with similar economies was the main critizism about China in climate summits a few years back. So I guess this proves the critics right, but still good that China didn't become complacent on this despite their own low-balled targets.

[–] sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al 3 points 3 months ago

Of course and probably with this in mind.

[–] CoffeeJunkie@lemmy.world 2 points 3 months ago

Agree with fr0g, the goals have become easier & cheaper to hit as the tech progresses. Especially when you do all manufacturing in-house, whip it out. Just be wary of any and all claims made by China; they are not to be trusted.

[–] YeetPics@mander.xyz 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Will this offset all the fast fashion production?

[–] sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al 1 points 3 months ago

Sadly not even a round number fraction