April 3, 2023 at 11:00 a.m.
What about China?
By Bill Bussey-
Here's some of what we know:
• With its annual CO2 emissions making up almost a third of total global emissions, China currently emits much more CO2 than any other county. The United States, with emissions making up about 12.5 percent of the global total, is the second largest emitter.
• Cumulatively, the United States is still the largest emitter, having emitted about one fourth of total emissions since the beginning of the industrial revolution. China is second, with around fifteen percent of the total.
• Emissions per person in the United States (with a population of 334 million) are about two times higher than those in China (with a population of over 1.4 billion.)
• China has over a third of the world's current solar power capacity - three times more than the United States - and manufactures more solar components than the rest of the world combined
• China has over a quarter of the world's wind power capacity - two and a half times more than the United States - and three times more wind turbine manufacturing than the United States
• Over half of global electric vehicle sales in 2022 were in China, and it's projected that China will produce more electric vehicles in 2023 than the United States, Germany, and Japan combined.
• China spent $542 billion on clean energy investments in 2022, almost half the world total.
• China's CO2 emissions may have slightly decreased in 2022 due to the effect of COVID lockdowns on the Chinese economy, but they are expected to increase in 2023 due to China's continuing heavy reliance on coal-fired power plants.
• China has goals of peaking its carbon emissions before 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions before 2060, both of which are considered woefully inadequate to achieve the international goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
So, it appears that China is transitioning to a clean energy economy - and reaping the economic benefits from its current dominance in clean energy manufacturing while doing so - but that the current pace of that transition isn't nearly fast enough. What are we to do?
How about this? How about challenging China's domination of clean energy manufacturing? Shouldn't we, the United States, with the world's largest economy and our American ingenuity and enterprising businesses, be leading the world in the transition to clean energy? And how about demonstrating to China and the rest of the world that the world's greatest democracy - not an authoritarian regime - will provide the global leadership needed to successfully address the climate crisis? Let's make this a competition. Let's make it a race to the top!
Congress's passage of the Inflation Reduction Act was a great first step in this direction. If we, American business and households, take full advantage of it, we can reduce our CO2 omissions by forty percent by 2030 and make great strides in challenging China's dominance in clean energy manufacturing. For a great next step, go to citizensclimatelobby.
org/price-on-carbon and then to citizensclimatelobby.org/get-loud-take-action/price-carbon. Let's win this thing!
Bill Bussey is group leader for the Chequamegon chapter of Citizens' Climate Lobby
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