This is hilarious because the sentiment (look at me trying not to use provocative language) regarding China has meant there’s been an outwardly view that they only care about polluting and yet, not only are they producing the bulk of the world’s solar panels, they’re actually implementing green energy policies at a rapid rate. Funny thing is, this isn’t even a pro-China thing, it’s a pro-planet thing. We absolutely need our biggest nations to lead the way in replacing coal and the likes with renewables. I will happily celebrate the small wins along the way.
In addition to wind power, China has fully embraced solar as an alternative source of clean energy. In June, it activated a 3.5-gigawatt, 33,000-acre solar farm outside Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital – the largest of its kind in the world. Not to be outdone, China announced plans for a behemoth 8 MW solar farm in the works as part of an $11 billion integrated energy project led by state-owned power company China Three Gorges Renewables Group.
These numbers are confusing. China uses about 3000 gigawatts of energy, 3.5 is 0.1%, but then it acts like 8MW will make the difference, but there’s 1000 MW in a gigawatt? So that’s like, 3.508 gigawatts?
I know this is far from everything China is doing, but it was just one piece of the article I decided to dig into. It would be nice to see numbers on what China’s goal is, how close they are, and how much they’re consuming, all in one graph
MrEff@lemmy.world 3 months ago
This is a bit of an understatement. China leads the world in both renewable energy usage AND coal use. And by a lot. Then they also lead in steel production with older blast and coke furnaces that are super CO2 intensive.
I’m not trying to shit on the progress they have made. It is nice to see them taking this more serious than some others. But this article kind of green washes their energy, overplaying their renewables and not even mentioning their dirty power.
sushibowl@feddit.nl 3 months ago
They also have some of the most people (is India ahead nowadays? I can’t keep track), and they manufacture tons of things meant for export to other (including western) countries.
The point being, everybody is greenwashing. China is greenwashing their energy mix. Western countries greenwash their own energy by essentially outsourcing the production and thus pollution. And this isn’t about China really. I could say the same for a bunch of countries.
The small consolation is that beside all the green propaganda, some progress is at least being made. Probably not enough, but some.
immutable@lemm.ee 3 months ago
True but we should also realize that China didn’t just sit around one day and go “let’s set up a bunch of coal fired power plants and steel mills for funsies.”
Most western countries that have run the neoliberalism playbook have gone “let’s let China build shit, we will do service, finance, and knowledge work instead” but we still want manufactured goods. I just think it’s important to bring this context when people point to China’s coal use as if they are just burning it for fun. They are burning it because we wanted cheaper goods and if we hadn’t have offshored that industry to them we’d be burning it.
We pay them to burn the coal and then complain that China is a polluter.