China renewables capacity additions soared in 2023, growing more than four times faster than the G7
Disclaimer: OP doesn't support CCP or authoritarian communism.
Sad to see the tensions between groups inside Lemmy rose so bad that someone has to mention they are not pro-CCP when they say good about China.
China is not ultimate good. China is not ultimate bad. Chinese government just does some good things and some bad things.
The right wing Americans and Europeans have made their place on Lemmy. Anything china does it's important they scream uguyrs or communism bad like that's some sort of gotcha from children of (and sometimes literally active) colonisers
Lets be honest. China doesnt care if they cook the planet all the same. What matters is enegry independency.
I used to tell people the proper response to this stuff would be for western industries to do the free enterprise thing and compete in this market. But the rebuttals always just devolved into prejudiced xenophobia instead of any genuine opinion or belief in green energy, infrastructure, or patriotism.
But but but... China the enemy though, right? We should hate them for this! 🥺
(yes, I'm memeing a bit, life isn't black and white)
China the enemy though, right?
Their success in renewable energy doesn't change the reality that China continues to disregard human rights, democracy, and freedom of speech.
So we can give credit for the renewable energy progress, maybe copy few ideas, but that’s about it.
No country is perfect and China is far away from it - but so are a bunch of other countries who call China out. Industrial nations have had more than 30 years to put out good numbers for green energy. Nuclear, wind, and hydro have been around for a long time. However those nations instead stayed at the top of the polluters and emitters lists - and they are still there.
Good on them.
How about per capita?
China's plans for taking control of Taiwan are falling into place.
With renewable energy?
Their panels will blot out the sun. Their hydro-electric dams shall dry up the seas. Their wind turbines will choke them of air. Even the ground beneath their very feet aren't safe, as the geothermal power plants will freeze the land below them. Taiwan will be begging for them to switch back to coal by the time China is done with them.
They're gonna stop the wind!
Blockading the Malacca Strait isn't a worry for China when domestic production and Russian inports fill the gap.All of this green energy helps tremendoualy for keeping the country ticking along during a time of war.
Energy security for China is the real benefit here, it'a nothing to do with being environmental.
LoL. “OP doesn’t support communism.”
I’m sure capitalists will put the needs of the people first any day now. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence the communists are blowing past everyone else in renewables, and general quality of life.
No data point is a match for rabid Sinophobia.
He said authoritarian communism, the problems with authoritarian communism aren't economic, they're related to having a surveillance/police state
I’m pretty sure they edited that “authoritarian” in later. I also do not support China’s police state.
show a coal chart too :/
Yeah I don't think it's useful to list GW capacities, as the country consumes and produces more power overall.
A more useful metric would be the percentage of renewables in the national grid.
Still, China is fairly impressive in that respect.
Sharing this here as it's exactly what you mention!
https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/carbon-intensity-electricity
CO2g per KWh is the standard metric for "how much a countries electricity pollutes".
Tldr China's is 580 and improving. USA is 370 and improving at a similar rate (this obviously might change under the current administration).
Others worth pointing too is Sweden (40gCO2) which is a good marker of what's possible for a wealthy country and India (700gCO2) because as a country with a lot of economic development and recent historic poverty, it shows why China's improvement is worth noting.
EDIT: I probabably implied that China and USA should be compared in terms of their improvements, but didn't mean too! I figure Lemmy is a mostly USA centric place, so thought that was a good benchmark. Comparing USA to similar wealthy, established enconomies like European countries, it's improving a lot slower. Comparing China to fast developing countries like India or Nigeria (probably a messy comparison) shows its improving faster than you'd expect.