ted (not lasso)
@ted
1. China emits more carbon today than the US, EU, and India combined and built more coal plants last year than in any prior year. 2. China's new-energy vehicles (EVs, PHEVs) hit record-high sales this year and makes ~20M a year. easy to draw different conclusions about the same country by reading only 1 or only 2.
17 replies
9 recasts
83 reactions
Thomas
@aviationdoctor.eth
On a per-capita basis, though, China emits 1.7x less than the US. It’s important to normalize given the demographic asymmetry (China has 4.2x the US population). On a cumulative basis, China has emitted 312 Gt CO2 to date, slightly higher than EU (303 Gt CO2) but far less than the US (532 Gt CO2) over the same record-keeping period. Then there here’s also the fact that ~15% of China’s CO2 emissions come from the production of exported goods, which adds to their carbon balance sheet but minimizes that of destination countries (US and EU mostly, which have outsourced much of their pollution to China in doing so). Last one — I believe your numbers for coal-fired plants are for 2023. Last year (2024) China cut down new permits by 83%. I’m only adding this because I think it allows for even more conclusions to be drawn
1 reply
0 recast
1 reaction
ted (not lasso)
@ted
thank you for adding updated numbers, much better. this was from my notes back in December so i’m guessing you’re right it’s about 2023. what do you takeaway from all this?
1 reply
0 recast
1 reaction
Thomas
@aviationdoctor.eth
My understanding is that China is making some efforts to meet its 2030 goal of having peaked in CO2 emissions before then, and to reach carbon neutrality. But, it’s hard for countries still developing so far to balance that imperative with that of not stifling growth, which in centralized / authoritarian regimes is also key to buying social peace. At the end of the day, the atmosphere doesn’t care where the carbon is coming from, and how much production-related pollution the West has outsourced to the global South; and the 1.5°C Paris goal is already shot anyway. We’re entering uncharted territories at any rate
1 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
Thomas
@aviationdoctor.eth
by 2060* is how my first paragraph should have ended
0 reply
0 recast
0 reaction
