96
submitted 3 months ago by Avenging5@sh.itjust.works to c/news@lemmy.world

While Australia debates the merits of going nuclear and frustration grows over the slower-than-needed rollout of solar and wind power, China is going all in on renewables.

New figures show the pace of its clean energy transition is roughly the equivalent of installing five large-scale nuclear power plants worth of renewables every week.

A report by Sydney-based think tank Climate Energy Finance (CEF) said China was installing renewables so rapidly it would meet its end-of-2030 target by the end of this month — or 6.5 years early.

It's installing at least 10 gigawatts of wind and solar generation capacity every fortnight.

By comparison, experts have said the Coalition's plan to build seven nuclear power plants would add fewer than 10GW of generation capacity to the grid sometime after 2035.

Energy experts are looking to China, the world's largest emitter, once seen as a climate villain, for lessons on how to go green, fast.

"We've seen America under President Biden throw a trillion dollars on the table [for clean energy]," CEF director Tim Buckley said.

"China's response to that has been to double down and go twice as fast."

top 16 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 19 points 3 months ago

Literally investment. They invested in renewables and so are reaping the rewards quicker

[-] JoshuaFalken@lemmy.world 13 points 3 months ago

To add a touch of perspective, China has spent 70% more than the EU and the US combined on their renewable infrastructure.

It's odd how politicians only seem to point out China's current position of largest annual carbon emitter, and use that as an excuse not to lift a finger in the way of reducing domestic emissions. It goes entirely ignored that those numbers are a result of China being the world's factory.

Despite this, they still have close to half the carbon emissions per capita compared to the runner up in annual carbon emissions - the United States of America - despite all that manufacturing.

[-] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 6 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

It’s the benefits of a dictatorship, there is no opposition who are influenced by lobbyists who spend money on a misinformation campaign. And China isn’t a big oil exporter, they import more oil than they export. Investments in renewables wouldn’t have happened if China was an oil giant.

[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I don't agree with that because I don't think China is primarily investing in solar technology because they're worried about energy.

I think their renewable investment is primarily a political move that they Love pointing to as soon as xi decided to compete with the US on the world stage.

" You think we're just a dictatorship? No, we're global stewards. Look how much we care about the environment."

The move benefits them politically, technologically, and economically.

So I think we would have seen this massive investment regardless of how oil-rich their country was or was not, because they weren't as married to any energy infrastructure like the us or other countries were, they could LeapFrog straight to the most economically beneficial technology with the largest roi that would also make them look good in the eyes of the world.

[-] bassad@jlai.lu 3 points 3 months ago

Indeed, plus there is no opposition - at all : here, even ecologists are complaining about some solar panel fields projects because companies want to build it in national parks.

Without oil China is trying to ensure energy independence, they go full nuclear too, they want to build 6-10 reactors per year

[-] radivojevic@discuss.online 15 points 3 months ago

How good are these goals and is a unbiased third party going to verify these claims?

[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 18 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

The Chinese goals are great for sustainable energy. Third parties have confirmed the consistent performance and production of the infrastructure for the past decade, this dominance has been expected for a long time and has ramped up in the last 5 years because of their continued massive investment in solar and battery technology.

So yeah, despite everything wrong with China, they are already and are going to continue to be the world's leading sustainable technology power because they're investing more in it.

I attribute China's massive investment as a huge reason why Biden was able to finally convince US politicians to invest in clean power.

If Biden didn't get even a trillion invested, which will not at all help the US catch up to China, we won't even see them receding in the distance in another decade in terms of sustainable energy.

There are tons of articles that show how China got here, and why people are paying attention today, but have a great pamphlet from an independent study looking specifically at their solar farms that I'm trying to find.

Here's context in the meantime:

https://internationalbanker.com/finance/china-continues-expanding-its-global-dominance-in-solar-power/

[-] radivojevic@discuss.online 2 points 3 months ago

I’m thrilled someone cares about solar. Perhaps they’ll share some of their excess with their global comrades.

[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 months ago

They'll sell the excess to literally anyone.

[-] radivojevic@discuss.online 1 points 3 months ago

No, China is “communist.” They have to share.

[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 4 points 3 months ago

Accumulative, resouce-hoarding, executive-owned communists.

[-] radivojevic@discuss.online 2 points 3 months ago

Shhh, you’ll attract an ML or a hexbear who will scream at you from their armchair.

[-] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 1 points 3 months ago

Ha thanks, it's cool, I frequently feel like I'm doing the good work by taking the brunt of their histrionics so others don't have to, kooks don't bother me none

[-] Wooki@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago

Sorry cant see it through all the smog.

[-] ryathal@sh.itjust.works 8 points 3 months ago

China is still industrializing, they are building all kinds of power, including coal. China was forced into heavier green energy than they have built previously because their cities were dangerous to live in from all the smog.

The climate goals are secondary to the real goal of stopping pictures of smog so thick you can't see across the street.

[-] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 1 points 3 months ago

CEF director Tim Buckley said.

I'm at a Loss for words

this post was submitted on 22 Jul 2024
96 points (100.0% liked)

News

23275 readers
3070 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS