china_ emissions
China, it’s a wonderful nation. It’s got the 2nd largest economy in the world. And just about everything you use comes from China. China is also one of the largest exporting countries in the world. It also has a huge population that is educated and respectful to everyone. China recently made huge moves in the fight against poverty, moves that no other has been able to achieve. China also has a good global influence; it builds bridges, schools, hospitals, and more for third-world countries which is really a noble cause. In fact, did you know that some of the largest tech giants like Google and Microsoft prefer Chinese scientists to work for them? Also, the Chinese version of Tik Tok is educational and teaches other self-improvement techniques. While the rest of the world watches ‘cool’ dances on Tik Tok, Chinese people learn how to do math on the app. China’s an amazing country, however, it also faces a problem that it has been struggling to solve and so have other countries. And that problem is… drumroll, climate change. Yeah, I know it’s a global problem but recently I read the news and realized that China’s capital, Beijing was choking from a thick smoke released due to China’s huge amounts of emissions. China produces a huge amount of emissions.
China produces 11.47 billion metric tons of Co2 emissions every year. That is roughly 28% of global emissions. But it wasn’t always like this. Before, China mostly didn’t participate in World Trade. However, everything changed when China joined the World Trade Organization. That marked a turning point in China’s economy and soon enough with some hard work, China was one of the largest exporting countries in the world, and its economy boomed. This is how we got to coal–fired where we are today. China is the world’s largest exporter, the country makes industrial goods and consumer goods, which are used by most of the world’s nations, and this causes many emissions. However, the major reason for China’s emissions is because of its over-dependency on coal. In September 2020 Xi Jinping said that China will have a carbon emissions peak in 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. He also said that China would not build coal-fired power projects abroad. However, he didn’t say anything about the coal–fired power plants in his country.
Even so, there is no doubt that China’s announcement to halt the building of new coal – plants abroad is huge. But China’s own domestic coal consumption is huge. The country still runs half of the world’s operating coal – fleet which is growing. In 2020, 60.75 % of China’s electricity came from coal. So despite China’s massive investments in renewable energy, its goal for carbon – neutrality will not be possible unless it decreases its growing coal power production. Also, the average person in China produces 7 tons of greenhouse gases. As a superpower, China’s decisions will have a significant impact either in a good or a bad way on the ability of the world to fight Climate Change.
Now it is easy to feel hopeless, with such a big problem. However, China can reduce its emissions in many ways. China already has the largest amount of electric vehicles and it plans to get 300 million on the road by 2050. The first step would be to ramp up the innovation of renewable sources of energy, and that’s not impossible because China has a lot of solar parks and wind farms. But China needs a lot more if it wants to achieve carbon – neutrality before 2060. 90% of the country will have to be powered by renewable energy to achieve net zero emissions. China being the 2nd largest economy in the world has the resources to do it. China is also great at stimulating the growth of large industries. Going carbon–neutral for China will not be easy but it is possible, I very strongly believe that one day China will be completely carbon–neutral. We will have made a huge step forward in the fight against Climate Change.
