Trump could endanger America's leadership in the air conditioning technology area - China wins
Trump could endanger America's leadership in the air conditioning technology area - China wins
high up above the sand dunes of the Kubuqi desert in China, almost 200,000 solar panels are carefully arranged in rows to create the silhouette of a galloping horse. This huge horse is a cultural symbol for the inner Mongolia-the northern Chinese region in which the massive Junma-Solarfarm is located. However, it also stands for the speed with which China is heading for a clean energy future.
China's role in the global energy transition
china installs wind and solar energy projects faster than any other country in the world. While the designated president of the United States, Donald Trump, will probably take back his country's role as a global climate leader, experts see that China has to take the lead. As the greatest cause of CO2 emissions, the country has more influence than any other nation to reduce global emissions.
The change depends on China's emissions
At the beginning of the 20th century, China only contributed a small part to the worldwide carbon pollution, but his emissions rapidly climbed when it quickly turned into the "workshop of the world" and recently became a powerful driver of technology. Today China is by far the largest cause of carbon emissions and is responsible for almost a third of the global emissions that heat the earth.The outlook on the future
The carbon pollution reaches worrying maximum, but there is a glimmer of hope: emission growth in China slows down. Some climate scientists and high-ranking US officials believe that China's emissions will soon reach their peak and sink. A decline could not come in time, since the year 2024 is on the best way to become the hottest year of all time, and scientists warn that humanity is running out of time to reduce fossil fuels and to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change.
China's impressive progress in the field of renewable energies
"It is extraordinary," says Jonathan Pershing, a former climate diplomat of the US State Department, who is now heading the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation's environmental program. "I look at it and say that is exactly what we expect from the world." Despite all the emissions caused by climate change, China is a global power plant for renewable energies. The country is building two thirds of the global solar power and wind power projects- almost 339 gigawatts- and could thus supply more than 250 million households. This is added to the existing 758 gigawatts of wind and solar energy, which China according to global energy Monitor has already built.
global solar exports and challenges
China's solar energy is growing so quickly that the country could generate more energy from sunlight by the early 2030s than the entire electricity demand from the United States. In addition, China leads the world to the export of solar panels, with the majority to Europe and increasingly goes to Africa. The USA, on the other hand, to build up your own supply chain for solar energy.
china observed climate goals
While many western nations formulate ambitious climate goals that they often miss, China tends to make conservative promises and to provide above -average results, explained John Podesta, the advisor to the White House for International Climate Policy. "In some of your planning scenarios you plan with 100 gigawatts a year, but actually you build almost 300 gigawatts a year," said Podesta to CNN. President Xi Jinping has previously undertaken to build 1,200 gigawatts of renewable energy by 2030 - a goal that the country has achieved six years earlier.
The way to carbon neutrality
The larger question now is whether this transition to clean energy will also lead to the decommissioning of coal -fired power plants. Wind and solar can now cover 37% of the country's electricity requirements, which already reduces the dominance of the coal. China has started to shut down its oldest coal -fired power plants and operate others less, but the construction of new systems continues. "I think they would have to continue in the next ten years to really reduce the coal -fired power plants," said Podesta. "You have the capacity to do this."
global effects of the emission reduction
podesta told CNN that the United States believes that China is in the phase of the emission summit. How fast and to what extent they reduce these emissions has enormous effects on the planet. China's present climate promise is to stabilize its climate -damaging emissions by 2030 at the latest. For the next series of climate obligations that is due in February, podesta and US officials China are pushing its emissions by 30% by 2035-a considerable decrease.
"The world expects significant commitment to reduce emissions from the largest cause in the world. It would be wise to express itself with a significant reduction." The savings potential through such a reduction would be enormous. If China lowers its emissions around the proposed 30%, this would prevent 4.7 gigatons from CO2 from getting into the atmosphere. This corresponds to the emissions that the United States are expected to produce this year, according to the officers of the Foreign Ministry.
A look into the future
CNN asked China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a comment. In a recent press conference, Xia Yingxian, director of climate change, said that China actively thinks about the goals for emission reduction by 2035 that have to announce all countries that have joined the Paris Agreement next year.
It is difficult to predict when China's emissions will reach their peak or whether they have already done so. The latest independent analyzes of the British Climate Akbon letter have shown that China's emissions were reduced by 1% at the beginning of this year-the first time that the country has recorded a decline since the outbreak of Covid-19.
an important turning point?
However, experts warn that it is too early to say whether this decline is a permanent trend. And a decline of 1% is not nearly sufficient to achieve the Chinese government's own climate goals for the next year. But one thing is clear: a fundamental change in China's economy is imminent. With the decline in the Chinese infrastructure boom according to Covid, the demand for heavy construction site materials such as cement and steel has also decreased. At the same time, however, the production of solar panels and electric vehicles increases."I want to be careful, but we have been seeing a U-turn in the past few months," Li Shuo, director of the China climate tub at the Asia Society Policy Institute, told CNN. China has been responsible for 90% of global emission growth since 2015, says Shuo. A plateau of emissions "would definitely mean that global emissions reach their peak and stagnate".
"This will mark a very important turning point in the global efforts to combat climate change," added Shuo. "This remains an inadequate first step. Nevertheless, it is an important stage."
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