The rise of solar power and China's staggering EV growth may have pushed global emissions into decline
The rise of solar power and China's staggering EV growth may have pushed global emissions into decline
Renewable technologies are gathering speed, putting the world within reach of falling greenhouse gas emissions. Climate experts say they "struggle to wrap their heads around" the sheer size, scale and speed of the current transition.
I will just post this here from a previous time this was brought up: While China is building a LOT of renewable energy and it should be applauded for it, it is not the only thing that are building. China accounted for 95% of the world’s new coal power construction activity in 2023, according to the latest annual report from https://globalenergymonitor.org/
While that is true, I believe that those are all replacement power plants. As in there was already an old much dirtier coal power plant in operation that needed replacement. If that is also the case, emissions may have finally peaked and we can begin the long hard road of cleanup and total phaseout.
Would have been great 20 years ago.
I'll believe we have emissions in decline when I see the numbers. AFAIK 2023 had record emissions and I doubt it'll stop there.
Not to mention an emissions decline means we're still making things worse, but not quite so quickly.
Obviously the path to making things better would have to pass through here, but just as people thinking electric cars are a solution rather than more of the problem, the delusion that this is winning is also part of the problem.
Yeah, it sounds great, I want this to be true...
This is just unbelievable. I don't believe it. Numbers are too easy to play with, you can make projections or look at rate of growth rate and say that's a tipping point. I want to see CO2 emissions diving on a bar graph, because physics doesn't use creative statistics
Kind of seems like a puff piece for China?
It really is not. China has built a lot of green tech in the last few years, but economic growth has meant energy consumption grew faster then renewables. However Chinas economy has problems, which China tries to solve by going green. So you get renewables and things like EVs actually replacing fossil fuels.
At the same time China is not a saint and per capita emissions are above those of most European countries right now.