cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/55394990
- China’s annual emissions have risen by 8.8 billion metric tons since 2000, accounting for roughly 62% of the entire global increase.
- China’s national emissions are now about 2.5 times higher than the U.S., even though its per capita emissions remain lower.
- Despite record solar and wind installations, China still burns more than half the world’s coal, and coal-fired power is rising again.
China’s per capita emissions remain below those of the United States. The U.S. and Europe have contributed more cumulative carbon dioxide to the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution. China has installed more wind and solar capacity than any other country.
All of those statements are true.
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But none of those facts erase the central point: China’s total carbon emissions have risen dramatically, and that rise has been the largest single contributor to the increase in global emissions this century.
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China’s annual emissions are now roughly two and a half times those of the United States. That is not a minor difference. It makes China the world’s largest annual emitter by a wide margin.
The trend is even more important. According to the Statistical Review of World Energy, global annual carbon dioxide emissions have risen by about 14 billion metric tons this century. China’s annual emissions have risen by about 8.8 billion metric tons over that same period. That means China accounts for roughly 62% of the global increase.
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The renewable energy point also needs nuance.
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China is not yet replacing fossil fuels fast enough to prevent emissions growth […] It is building renewables, but it is also responsible for over 50% of the world’s coal consumption. It is electrifying transportation, but it is also expanding industrial output. It is adding clean energy, but total energy demand has grown so quickly that renewables have not been able to fully offset fossil fuel growth.
That is the key point. The emissions outcome depends not only on how much renewable energy a country installs, but also on how fast total energy demand grows.
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Any serious climate discussion has to hold those facts at the same time.
If the question is cumulative responsibility, the U.S. and Europe carry a large burden. If the question is per capita emissions, the U.S. still looks bad. If the question is renewable deployment, China looks impressive.
But if the question is why annual global carbon dioxide emissions have risen so rapidly this century, China is the biggest part of the answer.
That is not a myth. It is what the data show.
https://ember-energy.org/countries-and-regions/china/
China decreases fossil fuels and builds more renewable than the rest of the world
That headline is literally a lie, preying on people who will see headlines and never read tge article to see the bizarre way they massage numbers to deceive.
China does not increase fossil fuels as your own link reads, amongst others,
China is also the world’s largest coal mine methane (CMM) emitter, accounting for 76% of global CMM emissions in 2023. Despite this, independent estimates suggest actual emissions may be higher than officially reported figures.
(But the headline is promising, unfortunately also highly misleading.)
I wrote in another thread already that China’s emissions rose this century from less then 4 billion tons to more than 13 billions.
What makes the situation worse is that emissions in China are set to rise: Even the Chinese Communist Party’s 15th five-year plan says that China’s goals for non-fossil energy additions would see China’s annual green energy additions fall by more than half compared to the 14th five-year plan. At the same time, fossil fuel energy consumption will increase by 8-10%.
Here you can see the countries and their contributions to climate change (hint: China, together with Russia, ranks among the worst).
Stop being weird with numbers by mixing absolute and relative percentages, rate of increase, percentages of vastely different quantities, etc. If you want people to take you seriously, you can say “China has this many GW of fossil fuels and this many GW non-fossil fuels. In 2030 they expect to have this”
The numbers and the way how they are presented are fine, there’s nothing weird.
It’s 15th five-year plan says that China’s goals for non-fossil energy additions would see the country’s annual green energy additions fall by more than half compared to the 14th five-year plan. At the same time, fossil fuel energy consumption will increase by 8-10%.