China promised climate action: Its emissions topped US, EU, India combined
Al Jazeera :
A previous version of this article misattributed a projection by China’s National Energy Administration to Greenpeace.
Taipei, Taiwan – More than any other country, China holds the power to make or break global efforts to prevent a climate catastrophe.
The world’s second-largest economy is the largest polluter globally, although its emissions are comparable to many countries on a per capita basis.
China produces about 30 percent of total emissions – more than the United States, the European Union and India combined, according to Global Carbon Budget 2022.
At the same time, Beijing is eking out a place as a leader in renewable energy, building up more solar power capacity than the entire rest of the world.
But while developed economies are reducing their emissions – albeit too slowly to meet their Paris Agreement pledges – China’s emissions are rising fast due to a furious appetite for coal used to power its cities and energy-intensive industries like steel.
China’s emissions grew by 10 percent year-on-year during the second quarter of this year – putting it on course to beat its previous record of 11.47 billion metric tonnes in 2021, according to data compiled by Carbon Brief, a United Kingdom-based website focused on climate policy.
Left unchecked, the growing carbon footprint threatens to derail international efforts to address the climate crisis, which scientists say already fall far short of what is needed to mitigate the worst outcomes of rising temperatures.
The Chinese economy’s heavy reliance on coal is widely expected to persist for years to come, while climate experts fear that Beijing’s goal of “peak carbon” by 2030, even if achieved, may still be unacceptably high.
Meanwhile, China’s renewable energy targets, though ambitious, face considerable obstacles, including an outdated power grid and the ongoing challenge of storing renewable energy, analysts say.
“No one frankly comes close to China’s leadership in renewables, second place is quite distant,” Cory Combs, associate director of Trivium China, a policy research company, told Al Jazeera.
“On the other hand, China is outpacing the rest of the world on coal as well.”
In 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to reduce his country’s emissions by 65 percent from their 2005 level by 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2060.
While Xi reiterated those goals in July, the Chinese leader included a caveat: energy policy would be based on the country’s needs and not “swayed by others”.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has insisted his country’s energy policy will not be swayed by outside forces [File: Gianluigi Guercia/Pool via AP]
Driven by concerns about its future energy security, Beijing has in recent years embarked on a building spree of coal-fired power plants.
Chinese authorities approved 86 gigawatts (GW) of new coal-fired plants in 2022 alone, and green-lit 50GW more in the first six months of 2023, according to Greenpeace.
In total, China currently has 243 GW of new coal-fired power facilities in the pipeline, enough to power Germany, according to a report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) and Global Energy Monitor.
“The biggest story right now is probably the energy security perspective. China will not give up coal until it has a guarantee of effective energy security,” Combs said.
“Specifically, we are looking at: one, the ability to provide base-load power at any given time; and two, the ability to guarantee that it can meet any particular peak load.”
Beijing’s decision to double down on coal reflects fears of a repeat of energy crunches that have afflicted the industry in recent years.
In 2021, coal shortages and surging demand for goods from factories during the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in blackouts in 20 Chinese cities and provinces.
The following summer, a drought sparked by a record-breaking heatwave reduced the capacity of the country’s hydropower dams, which make up 16 percent of China’s power mix.
