Analysis: Clean energy just put China’s CO2 emissions into reverse for first time - Carbon Brief
www.carbonbrief.org
For the first time, the growth in China’s clean power generation has caused the nation’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to fall despite rapid power demand growth.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/22189256

The latest data, for the first quarter of 2025, shows that China’s CO2 emissions have now been stable or falling for more than a year, as shown in the figure below.

However, with emissions remaining just 1% below the recent peak, it remains possible that they could jump once again to a new record high.

Outside of the power sector, emissions increased 3.5%, with the largest rises in the use of coal in the metals and chemicals industries.

Sector-by-sector analysis suggests that, in addition to the power sector, emissions have likely also peaked in the building materials and steel sectors, as well as oil products consumption.

  • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
    16·
    20 days ago

    Excellent news!

    Now it’s on US deniers - we can no longer claim we shouldn’t do anything because China is not

    • CosmoNova@lemmy.worldEnglish
      25·
      20 days ago

      I hate to be the bearer of unpopular takes but it’s likely a sign of a shrinking economy. That‘s something that won‘t convince any voters at the moment.

        • CosmoNova@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          15 days ago

          There’s a blind spot in your argument though. They shipped out everything they could before tariffs hit. Doesn‘t mean they produced all of that recently. They very likely slowed down production a while ago because of these economic uncertainties and instead focused on getting as much out of the country as possible of what they still had laying around. So yes the economy could make an unexpected jump before sliding down quickly. It‘s a bad thing for the economy mid term.