China charges ahead on climate while the West stalls and spins

National Observer

3 days ago

You've got to hand it to China. At a time when the US is backsliding on plans to reduce its carbon pollution, the Asian country is promising to join the EU in becoming a world leader in the fight against climate change.
China followed Europe earlier this month with a commitment to revamp its climate plan to meet the long-term temperature goal of the Paris Agreement. The goal, which entails reducing global greenhouse gas emissions to hold the earth's temperature increase to well below 2 C above pre-industrial levels, is a tall order for the world's second-most populous country.
China is far and away the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter, contributing nearly a third of the total. Despite gains from massive investments in renewable energy, China's emissions continued to climb last year. The Climate Action Tracker rates China's progress as ' highly insufficient,' a step worse than Canada, which is also deemed to be ' insufficient.'
The problem is the skyrocketing demand for power, which China can't yet meet with renewables. President Xi Jinping announced China would start to phase out coal-fired power plants, one of the highest emitters of greenhouse gases, in 2026. So far however, coal mining is still increasing and the construction of coal plants reached a 10-year high last year due to growing energy security concerns. Electricity demand spikes during heat waves when people crank up air conditioning. This is also the time when dam reservoir levels drop, decreasing the amount of available hydropower. That means burning more coal for power and greater carbon emissions. The vicious cycle continues.
Amid that avalanche of doom, however, are some very bright lights that could start to glow even brighter. There are indications that China's emissions have peaked and the country is about to turn the corner. There are a lot of Xi skeptics, and for good reason. A cynic might point to Xi's recent pivot back to coal and dismiss his climate leadership aspirations as an empty promise. But the country is a renewable energy juggernaut and in the first quarter of this year, the amount of power from solar and wind for the first time surpassed thermal energy mostly produced by coal.
Similarly, the number of electric vehicles sold in China is set to overtake gas-powered vehicle sales this year, 10 years ahead of its target. China's dominance in the EV marketplace won kudos from none other than Ford's CEO Jim Farley who recently returned from China gushing, 'their cost, their quality of their vehicles is far superior to what I see in the West.'
Part of China's interest in renewables is pure economics. China manufactures 80 per cent of the world's solar panels at a time when renewables are in hot demand and its rich mineral reserves also allow the country to dominate battery production. But according to Carbon Brief, a UK-based climate publication, a good deal of the credit for China's climate ambition goes to Xi himself, who was concerned about global warming and interested in renewable energy long before he became president.
China claims it is ready to take on the role as a leader in the fight against climate change. It just might happen. @adriennetanner.bsky.social writes
As long ago as 2003, Xi wrote a series of articles, some of which touched on 'environmental protection, sustainable development, circular economy, conservation-oriented society and reducing resource consumption and pollution.' In 2005, when he was the party secretary of Zhejiang province, Xi gave a speech to villagers thrown out of work after a highly polluting quarry was shuttered, urging them to support a green transition. His statement, 'lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets themselves,' has since become his most famous environmental quote.
When Xi was elevated to the presidency, Beijing was choked in record-breaking smog from coal, iron, steel, cement and chemical plants. The country's development-at-all-costs mentality after the 2008 recession was sending 7,000 children a day to hospital for treatment for respiratory ailments. In response, a National Air Quality Action Plan was put in place that — among many other measures — capped the number of cars in Beijing and charted a course for investment in renewable energy. Since then, the Chinese public's perception and awareness of the need to combat climate change has shifted. 'It is top-down and driven by Chinese leadership,' Lu Zhi, a professor of conservation biology at Peking University, told Carbon Brief.
We should not underestimate the importance of leadership in the battle against climate change. South of our border, the US under former President Joe Biden, set ambitious climate targets to lower emissions by at least 50 per cent by 2030 and invested billions in climate-related infrastructure projects. One change in leadership later, and much of it is being undone. President Donald Trump has rolled back the nation's climate strategy, and is doing everything possible to arrest wind and solar energy, and to slow the transition to EVs. The most recent and dangerous blow delivered by the Trump administration this week, was an announcement from the Environmental Protection Agency stating that greenhouse gases will no longer be considered a public health threat, a finding that enabled the federal government to set emissions limits.
Here in Canada, environmental policy has taken a hit since the election of Prime Minister Mark Carney. His first move was to blast his predecessor's consumer carbon tax. And he is now musing about building more oil pipelines and contemplating doing away with a planned industrial emissions cap, and seems open to softening EV mandates.
China's leadership, for obvious reasons, would not tolerate the bevy of haters and naysayers who elected Donald Trump, and is less prone to capricious directional policy changes. Furthermore, the government sets the direction for industrial and economic development. While this has forced the country to tolerate horrific air pollution in its cities, it also means that when shifts are mandated, such as the transition to renewables or adoption of EVs, they happen a whole lot faster than here in the West.
And with less spin from industry defending outdated technology like internal combustion engines when better options are available, Chinese consumers are more willing to switch. If Xi is indeed serious about being a climate leader and wants to trade China's coal reliance for renewables, he's got as good a chance as anyone to make it happen.