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Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Despite admitting China added a whopping 58GW of coal capacity this year, and admitting a few human rights abuses in Hong Kong, Foreign Policy is hailing President Xi as a world saviour because he promised to do something about climate change.
Did Xi Just Save the World?
In a little-noticed speech this week, China permanently changed the global fight against climate change.
BY ADAM TOOZE | SEPTEMBER 25, 2020, 2:23 PM
āChina will scale up its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions by adopting more vigorous policies and measures. We aim to have [carbon dioxide] emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.ā
Xi Jinpingās speech via video link to the United Nations General Assembly on Sept. 22 was not widely trailed in advance. But with those two short sentences Chinaās leader may have redefined the future prospects for humanity.
…
Thereās an obvious question, of course: Is Xi for real?
There are reasons to be skeptical. Xi is not promising an immediate turnaround. The peak will still be expected around 2030. Recent investments in new coal-fired capacity have been alarming. A gigantic 58 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity have been approved or announced just in the first six months of this year. That is equivalent to 25 percent of Americaās entire installed capacity and more than China has projected in the previous two years put together. Due to the decentralization of decision-making, Beijing has only partial control over the expansion of coal-burning capacity. If Beijing is actually to implement this policy, there are huge political as well as technological challenges ahead. There have been some encouraging noises about new renewable energy commitments. But the transition costs will be huge, and Beijing has to face its own fossil fuel lobby. As one commentator remarked, Chinese officials laugh when they earnestly seek advice from Europeans on problems of the ājust transitionā and realize that the entire fossil fuel workforce that has to be taken care of in Germany is smaller than that of a single province in China. It will be an upheaval similar to the traumatic 1990s shakeout of Mao Zedong-era heavy industry.
…
Though Europe will cheer Xiās commitment, in strategic terms it underlines how awkward the EUās position is. On the one hand, the Europeans increasingly want to stake out a strong position on Hong Kong, Xinjiang, human rights, and any geopolitical aggression in the South China Sea. Europeās residual attachment to the United States is real. But China has now underscored how firmly it aligns with a common agenda with the EU on climate policy. The contrast to the Trump administration could hardly be starker.
…
Read more: https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/09/25/xi-china-climate-change-saved-the-world%E2%80%A8/
What is wrong with the world?
Xi Jinping is operating one of the most repressive Chinese regimes since Mao Zedong, with almost daily reports of persecution of foreign journalists, human rights outrages in Hong Kong, threatening Taiwan and India with war, and brutal concentration camps in Xinjiang and perhaps also Tibet, Inner Mongolia, and who knows where else.
Xi openly reveres the murderous Mao regime as an inspiration to his “reformation” plans.
Yet one whiff of greater compliance with the Paris Agreement, not even actions, just words, and an influential media group like Foreign Policy leads with the headline that China is trying to save the world.
Considering Chairman Xi just lied through his teeth about the Wuhan Coronavirus that led directly to a global pandemic and economic carnage that has immensely harmed the world, why would anyone believe him now about some far off promise that doesn’t even begin until 2030 through 2060. The first lesson that the world has to learn about Red China and their communist/fascist rule, is they can’t be trusted to be any kind of reliable partner on anything. Their only aim is to destroy the West, through all kinds of mischief that allows them to assume global leadership. Do you want to live under Red China control of the world? Because that is their aim, and is what is already happening in many places along their Silk Rut.
Belt and Road
And itās happening because we in the west are forcing countries in the Chinaās orbit with our directives that they have to use green energy and subsistence farming.
Without exception they of course refuse and turn to China to build them reliable power systems.
From any way you want to look at it, it sure looks to me like western green policy in the third world is design to force these countries into chinas orbit
A brilliant strategy
One that fits, for example our retarded PM Trudeau who admires Chinaās government
The whole green energy thing is a Chinese propaganda scam. The greens are bought and paid for byChinese money
China is saving the world by slightly agreeing with the Paris Accord like I’m destroying the planet by driving to the grocery store – both things can be false at the same time
My check has yet to arrive. Maybe it is in the same lost mail batch as Anthony’s big oil checks.
In the ditch with Trump postal votes.
The Green Blight progressed through political myths and shared/shifted responsibility, and billions of dollars redistributed annually to influence and steer votes and regulatory favor.
Earthling2, you are so cynically sceptical!! Just because Xi has lied through his bare faced teeth up to now is no reason to think he is not as sincere as new born driven snow!
Earthling2
“…, why would anyone believe him now …”
Because they so desperately want to they have suspended disbelief. That is not a realistic reaction, but it is how the Left behaves.
“… why would anyone believe him now.”
China doesn’t have to adopt unreliable energy sources. They already have Socialism.
Thanks RLu, one of the best phrases I have seen fora long time.
Allusion to [C][A]GW is the great equivocator.
Appalling but not surprising.
Surprised Adam Tooze wrote that. He is a respected economic historian. He wrote a really great book on the Nazi economy, called, “The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy.” So surprised he’d fall for some Chinese nonsense like this.
His book on World War I is also excellent. It really shows what an idiot Woodrow Wilson was.: The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143127977
It just shows that 2 inches outside of his area of expertise, no intellectual is smarter than the average drunk in a bar.
“It just shows that 2 inches outside of his area of expertise, no intellectual is smarter than the average drunk in a bar.”
We seem to have a lot of intelectuals who operate outside their expertise.
I see where “The Rock” has endorsed Biden. How can you endorse a traitor to the United States, Rock? I would have thought you wouldn’t want to vote for someone who tried to undermine the U.S. Constituion in order to steal a presidential election. The Rock is obviously oblivious to reality and is operating outside his area of expertise.
And, unfortunately, The Rock, is not alone. There are a LOT of intelectuals out there who appear to be completely clueless about a lot of subjects It appears “intelectuals” are not all that intellectual.
Maybe, along with distributig the Wuhan virus to the world, the Chimcoms also created a “stupid” virus which has spread to the Western world and its politicians.
As with all fossil fuel reduction plans so far, poor people somewhere will be in energy poverty for a lot longer, while the elite donāt notice any difference except maybe higher profits from their wind farm or solar panel business.
These guys will believe anything that suits them!
Anyway according to the theory of the emission transition China is due to level off emissions in a decade or two (allow a decade or two of slack going past 2030). The emission transiton idea is that when a nation has got past the industrial revolution and built enough roads, railway, bridges and dams to get well developed and at the same time build nuclear plants and modern coal stations, then emissions will taper off, maybe even decline per capita. The US did the transition with gas, Europe is doing it by going into recession, China is well advanced and India is on still on the steep upward part of the curve.
https://catallaxyfiles.com/2019/09/12/the-emission-transition-following-the-demographic-transition/
The contrast to the Trump administration could hardly be starker.
This is the last sentence in the article.
I think it was the first one written.
In an earlier blog today one clueless blogger praised Russia and China for their political systems and how communism had lifted up these countries and propelled them into power houses .
I corrected him and informed him that communism was tribalism in a modern form .
All citizens are subservient to the chieftain class { the president and the top bureaucrats} and the individual has very few rights to own their own homes or farms and to grow businesses beyond a very small base .
The tribe comes above all else and most tribal members are expendable .
I also pointed out that millions have been tortured and killed under communism
As for China they have ramped up the use of coal since 2009 when world coal production was 4.7 billion tonnes and in 2018 world coal use topped 8 billion tonnes .
All the cutbacks that other countries have made to their emission profiles have been swamped by this large increase .
Every tonne of coal burnt releases around 2.7 tonnes of CO2 but further to that large amounts of methane is released during mining and combustion .
Here in New Zealand around half of our emissions are counted as enteric methane from livestock which adds not one atom of methane or molecule to the atmosphere over any time frame .
The process is a cycle but our government wants to restrict our animal farming .
Also counted in our emission profile is our log and timber exports to Asia dominated by China .
Can some one tell me how these logs and timber that have absorbed CO2 from the air as they grow are counted as New Zealand’s emissions when they are exported and used in other countries .
Do the countries exporting coal or oil have to count their exports as emissions ? Of course not they are counted in the countries that use them .
Some how timber is different or is it our green tinged government .
This is what happens when ideology gets in the way of common sense .
As we log our plantation forests they are replanted and again start absorbing CO2.
China is one of our biggest trading partners ,importing thousands of containers of dairy products .meat and fruit .They are by far our largest buyer of logs and timber and they also buy a lot of wool and iron sand .
China’s population is expected to peak about 2030, then decline.
There are several advantages to closing old carbon-based fuel power facilities and building bigger and cleaner facilities. Thus his statements are justifiable, and not really news. Further, the outlined moves will have no effect on the climate in the near or far future. The phrase “future prospects for humanity” is silly.
Just as “The Donald” knows how to tweak a message to addle Democrats, this man knows how to push the buttons of the media and bureaucrats of the EU.
The author, Adam Tooze, must be off his meds.
See what China DOES!
China plans 226 GW of new coal power projects: environmental groups Reuters Sept 19, 2020
“Chinaās total planned coal-fired power projects now stand at 226.2 gigawatts (GW), the highest in the world and more than twice the amount of new capacity on the books in India…”
“… worldwide 400 of the 746 companies in their database were still planning to expand their coal operations.”
The projects approved by China amount to nearly 40% of the worldās total planned coal-fired power plants, according to the Global Coal Exit List database run by German environmental organization Urgewald and 30 other partner organizations.
The new China projects would be more than Germanyās existing installed power capacity of around 200 GW by the end of 2018.”
“China had 1,020 GW of coal-fired power by the end of July, amounting to 55% of its total installed capacity. A Chinese industry group has suggested total capacity could eventually settle at 1,300 GW.”
China Promotes Climate Goal, and Builds New Coal Plants
“China, though it has canceled some planned thermal power plants over the past several years, has as much as 200 GW of coal-fired facilities in its development pipeline, according to Mary Hutzler, a distinguished Senior Fellow at the Institute for Energy Research.”
China is controlled by the military and business. Thatās all you need to know.
And the USA is also controlled by military and business, arguably…
Ah, Griff: The fountain of ignorance. The U.S. is, again, in the midst of contested election. The U.S. military is under civilian control. Communist China is a military dictatorship; Tiananmen Square and Hong Kong proved that beyond doubt.
Cannot believe this but I agree with Griff. THe US is controlled by the military and business.
Right now, the US is controlled by Trump.
The Special Interests don’t like that one bit and that is why they fight Trump so vigourously.
So, far, Trump and the People of the United States are winning, winning, winning.
No.
Maybe they are trying to save the world. For whom? That is the question. Time will tell. We may not have to wait for long.
AGW as a political football. The Marxists have no shame and anything/everything is fare game to justify the end.
You are describing the Chicoms but you could also be describing the US Democrats because the Demcrats are just as morally bankrupt as the Chicoms. Nothing, legal or illegal, is out of bounds when it comes to gaining and keeping power for either group. “The end justifies the means” is their mantra.
Let me see: Oh, yeah – China says one thing & then does another.
And we won’t find out for sure until the year 2030.
By that time, new nuclear reactor designs may be coming online.
With a La Nina developing , and the probability of a second lowish solar cycle, it is more than likely that there will be cooling well before 2060, or even 2030.
Been cooling all of 2020 so far
With so many new coal fired power stations, China will be in a great position to ride out the cooler climate.
Other countries, that have bowed to the nonsense of “AGW caused by human CO2” and decimated the reliability of their electricity supply systems……. may not be so lucky.
‘Been cooling all of 2020 so far’
There absolutely has not…
https://weather.com/news/climate/news/2020-07-13-june-2020-global-temperatures-noaa-nasa-ecmwf
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/will-2020-be-the-hottest-year-on-record/
Neither the Weather cannel nor Scientific American can be trusted and they did not present any graph like the notrickszone did lol
– JPP
Agree fred250,
It is clear that China. Asia and India are doing their best coal burning to keep the planet from falling over the cliff into an ice age, whilst the elites keep pushing to make it happen as part of their de-population agenda.
The lesson of 2020 is that the experts, media and government wonks are always fatally WRONG. Cov19 is tailored for the wise elders – how convenient.
Snow and icey blasts on the spring day of the kids climate change strike…… We have been warned, again!
Speaking of climate change I just noticed a ticker news story about Switzerland breaking their old record for the earliest snow day with 10 inches falling in areas. Austria had snow down to the 1800′ level. Recently I have been saying that Europe is very likely going to get hit with an early deep cold wave, and that is now starting to look highly likely, imo. This will be similar to the cold waves with minus temps which intruded west as far as Eastern France back in the winters of 2013 and 2014. … https://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/isobaric/500hPa/overlay=temp/orthographic=31.81,59.78,605/loc=10.137,46.606
https://www.wetteronline.de/wetterticker/9391256e-f43a-42ae-afe6-a0184ff47810
11 Sept: China Dialogue: What are the prospects of an EUāChina climate deal?
Ahead of the EUāChina leadersā call on 14 September, the EU is looking to China for strong climate targets
by Byford Tsang, Jennifer Tollmann
Although trade will be the focus of the EUāChina leadersā call on 14 September, it would be a mistake to think climate is off the summitās agenda or unimportant in the broader relationship…
***Unspoken, but not forgotten in the European debate is growing concern over Chinaās reawakening coal habit. If China completes all the coal power plants it is currently building and plans to build, the lifetime emissions from these projects would be equal to nearly seven times the EUās annual emissions…
https://chinadialogue.net/en/climate/what-are-the-prospects-of-an-eu-china-climate-deal/
25 June: Economic Times India: Reuters: China has 250 GW of coal-fired power under development: study
SHANGHAI: China has nearly 250 gigawatts (GW) of coal-fired power now under development, more than the entire coal power capacity of the United States, a new study said on Thursday, casting doubt on the countryās commitments to cutting fossil fuel use…
https://energy.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/coal/china-has-250-gw-of-coal-fired-power-under-development-study/76616107
23 Sept: Yahoo: AFP: China eyes climate leadership with 2060 carbon neutral goal
PIC: Cities like Shanghai are frequently shrouded in smog from Chinaās pollution-belching factories…
But Chinaās leader did not immediately put meat on the bones of his carbon-slashing commitment.
China currently has ***135 gigawatts of coal-power capacity either permitted or under construction, according to Global Energy Monitor, a San Francisco-based environmental group.
That equates to about half the total coal-power capacity in the US…
Joeri Rogelj, a climate expert at Imperial College Londonās Grantham Institute, called Xiās pledge āunexpected and eye-opening.ā…
Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, a Belgian climate scientist and former vice chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a UN expert panel, called Xiās commitment āvery important.ā
But he questioned whether China would follow its own guidelines as it pursues a global infrastructure-building binge ā for example, if it will still back coal plants in Africa…
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/china-sets-2060-goal-carbon-191800426.html
“If China completes all the coal power plants it is currently building and plans to build, the lifetime emissions from these projects would be equal to nearly seven times the EUās annual emissions”
Meanwhile, the EU is in the process of bankrupting themselves in their efforts to reduce CO2 and the Chicoms make all these EU efforts meaningless.
What a bunch of EU fools!
The Chicoms must be really encouraged by how stupid western politicians are. Like taking candy from a baby, isn’t it Xi.
The collapse of China’s massive credit bubble will do more to stop their emissions than any politburo edict.
China wants Western counties to waste $100s of trillions on grid-level wind/solar debacles because it will make Western goods and services uncompetitive compared to Chinaās power costs currently @ $0.08/kWh…
This is a very clever head fake by China, because Western counties wrongly assume China is now willing to also destroy their economy by replacing their coal generated power with insane wind/solar, which will incentivize Western economies to accelerate their wind/solar projects, giving China a huge competitive advantage.
What Chinaās announcement actually means is that Chinaās next-generation nuclear power development is far ahead of schedule and that China actually plans to replace coal with next-gen nuclear power at $0.04/kWh, while Western countries insanely accelerate their wind/solar debacles and run up their power costs to $0.30/kWh…
Western countries will take decades to catch up to China nuclear power based economy because it takes decades of bureaucratic red tape to get approval/construct new nuclear power plants, while it will just take months in China to build their next-gen pre-fabricated turn-key nuclear power plants as they have no bureaucratic red tapeā-the Chinese government does whatever it wants…
Clever.. very clever…
And we will sell them all the uranium, coal, iron ore and whatever else they want, including food to keep them going while they manufacture the solar panels and wind turbines to sell us, plus build the largest military on the planet to bully SE Asia and the rest of the world when they chose. The world better wise up quickly, or plan on learning Mandarin. It’s not too late to take down Xi and the Han Communist Party of China. Just make them pay an extremely heavy price until their own population rises up and brings them down, similar to how the Soviet Union collapsed under its own malevolent inefficiency. We will all pay for it, but is a price worth paying not having an evil empire that we will need to have to go to war someday. In some ways, things are similar to the early/mid 1930’s in eastern Asia. Just a different empire.
Earthling2-san:
Itās actually much worse than that….
The US GAVE China (free of charge) every scrap of basic research and technology to develop next-gen Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTRS) and actually invited the Chinese to visit our Oak Ridge Laboratories where LFTRs were developed and where the first prototype MSR was built.
The US is also sending our best nuclear engineers to visit China to assist them in developing their next-Gen nuclear reactors…
It is now 50 years ago the US abandoned LFTR. It is a plus for humanity that some other nation is willing and glad to finally maturate the LFTR concept.
SAMURAI, I believe you are fundamentally right.
It is getting increasingly difficult for western countries to actually produce any major parts of the Green WDGs, as these items are mining and power hungry.
Western countries, in general, have been so focused on low energy flux weather dependent electricity generators, that they have failed to install adequate base power to sustain the new Green industry, the expanding Internet, increase in automobile production, smart phones for many billion people every three years, etc.
In order for China to enjoy the opportunity to produce the hardware for the “will have it all” world, China did what we should have done for the last two decades or more: Make sure we have the electric capacity to sustain all aspects of the production needed for the things we produce and acquire.
The US should would have needed to extend their capacity with more less the same amount of GW, if we would have been serious about home production and making America Really Great Again. – Same goes for the EU obviously.
The car industry and the Green industry are heavy industries, and heavy industries is a thorn in the eyes of the Greens – making the doc chase its own tail. So the western move away for sound democracy towards big government and socialism, has been helped by the Chinese production, maybe even only made possible with Chinese production.
Excellent analysis, SAMURAI. I think you are right on the money.
I have been following news stories about events in China closely over the last 3 months. It is hard to believe how they treat their own citizens. They regularly beat poor unfortunate street vendors at times. They will lock your front door to your apartment from the outside in order to keep you on lockdown. They don’t ask if your food/water supplies are sufficient before doing that. Recently the government decided to force landowners in one area, who held centuries old land claims, to sign their properties over to the state with little to no compensation. If you don’t sign the property over they will come and beat you, no matter how old you are, or they take you and lock you up for a time while they beat and torture you into siging over the property.
The entire world needs to stand up against the CCP until the CCP is finally smashed and defeated. It is hard to understand how world leaders could be so blind as to allow the CCP to come so close to becoming the dominant nation of this planet. The CCP would have become Hitler’s Germany on steroids if Trump had not been elected.
During Apartheid the world condemned South Africa. Beijing gets Olympics. The web of supply chains runs too deep to be excised now I fear
“The web of supply chains runs too deep to be excised now I fear”
Temporarily. Trump is working to bring all essential supply chains back to the U.S.
China needs food, so they won’t be playing hardball with the supply chain for a while. Long enough for us to get our supply chains back under our control by moving them to the United States.
The world is blind because western Elites are getting paid off. Because they hate their own societies and believe western culture is evil they can justify selling it out as a good thing.
Let me give everyone here a little clue, Western Culture is based on the individual, Elites see free individuals as a threat to their wealth and the fact that their wealth comes from their own superiority. Most people us there freedom to make happy enjoyable life and donāt give a crap about these paranoid crazy people.
“Recently the government decided to force landowners in one area, who held centuries old land claims, to sign their properties over to the state with little to no compensation. If you donāt sign the property over they will come and beat you, no matter how old you are, or they take you and lock you up for a time while they beat and torture you into siging over the property.”
That doesn’t make sense. Why bother going through the process of imprisoning and beating just to get a signature? Seems like taking the land by govt’ edict is a lot quicker and less beatier.
Likely due to the government wanting to eventaully claim that everyone who had their family properties stolen agreed with the governments demands. The CCP will eventually rewrite the history to show how Chinese people willingly sacrificed their properties for the good of the nation.
Along similar lines the CCP went in and destroyed large areas of cropland because they wanted the land. Sad to see the videos of some poor farmer crying as he sits in the middle of what used to be an orchard or grain field. The CCP literally bulldozed all of it into the dirt. Or people who had their homes bulldozed who are sitting in the ruins, the despair/hopelessness evident on their faces. The CCP is merciless.
“It is hard to understand how world leaders could be so blind as to allow the CCP to come so close to becoming the dominant nation of this planet. The CCP would have become Hitlerās Germany on steroids if Trump had not been elected.”
Western Leftists are basically cowards. Unfortunately, most Western nations are run by Leftists.
The first impulse of a Western Leftists is to appease dictators or anyone who might pose a physical threat to them. In this case, they are appeasing the Chicoms by ignoring what the Chicoms are really doing. If they ignore the Chicoms crimes against humanity, then they don’t have to call them out on it.
Trump is about the only thing standing between the Western world and the Forces of Darkness in the world. Those forces of darkness being the Chicoms, Putin, the Mad Mullahs of Iran, North Korea, and all Western Leftist politicians. Erdogan of Turkey may make that category. We’ll just have to wait and see what kind of antics he pulls. His ego might put him over the edge. As with so many others down through history with an inflated image of themselves in their own minds. Ah, delusion! It causes so much trouble.
China will ruthlessly encourage western civilization to undermine itself (at the alter of global warming) for the next decade or so and by the time we collectively realize how we have crippled ourselves – they will be at their literal peak power.
Fool us once, shame on you – fool us twice, shame on us!
They might even do it at an altar. š
FP are just gullible fools.
Believe anything that comes out of Xi’s mouth at your own peril. He is at ease with the chineese state police making whatever he says the truth by crushing and imprisoning anyone who begs to differ.
Announcement-ware?
195 million Chinese kids went back to school this week. The New York Slimes had a hissy fit about “authoritarianism”, with pictures of full classrooms without masks.
Mad Mike Pompeo is gunning for war with China, even harassing the Pope, who is a firm believer in “climate”. Strangely enough some of the Hong Kong “activists” who trashed the place, like Portland, are catholic, no doubt something for the Pope. He got his orders at the London In and Out Club of the Henry Jackson Society, his very British masters.
Foreign Policy shows how China rose to its leading position today :
http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/02/03/towards-a-trump-pacific-partnership-a-way-forward-to-win-on-trade-with-china/
by following the well-worn path of the USA, and Alexander Hamilton.
Have a read before whimpering “what is wrong with the world”. London has been doing that since 1783.
WUWT stands for Watts Up With That, not, What is Wrong With the World.
Meds, bonbon. Meds!
Completely off topic, but one of the most amazing medical stories I have ever come across. From the South China Morning Post, … https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ycLWc4bRtg
Nice to see something good.
Why should anyone be surprised by this article? Climate change has about as much to do with the environment as the COVID-19 lockdowns with our health, which is to say none at all. The majority of people in the media are leftists, which means communists. China has the government they aspire to. Why should Marxists say something bad about other Marxists? Am I wrong? Why is the only solution to climate change always the removal of capitalism and implementation of socialism? And why is this true despite the fact that socialist/communist governments produce more pollution than capitalist governments?
China is fueling a global disinformation campaign. This is according to the New York Times. (Twitter thread about the NYT article — https://twitter.com/MichaelPSenger/status/1270925788389486593 ) The reason is simple: To slowly condition people to accept more and more government control. People who are used to liberty are not going to give up all at once, you have chip away at it. It is also a fact that 4 more years of Donald Trump will hurt China bad. The factories that are in China can just as easily be in Vietnam, for instance. A trade war with China will be just a flesh wound to the US, but it can leave China like the Dark Knight with no arms or legs. (Monty Python reference)
Environmentalists may have started off being about the environment. Not any more. It is all about ending capitalism. The same is true with the antifa and the fascist BLM. (The primary difference between a communist and fascist is that communists hate people based on their class, fascists hate people based on their race.) And the fact is, they are succeeding. This younger generation will be just like Lenin’s young agitators in the pre-communist Russia.
The contrast to the Trump administration could hardly be starker.
Very true. US CO2 emissions continue to fall whereas China’s continue to rise.
+ 1000
China and EU, sitting in a tree…
Here’s a great example of one of the Left’s many mentally defective disorders: An autocratic anti-American dictator or regime promises some vague action years or decades in the future and the Left fetes them.
Which country does more for the environment – –
a) The one does not sign any international agreements but actually reduces pollution and emissions.
b) The one that signs every pledge, every accord, every treaty but does not actually comply with any.
For the Left, “b” is the only answer. Words count more than deeds; ideas, not facts matter.
2030 to 2060 . . ?
I thought we have less than 10 years to save the World . . .
The same as the New York Slimes singing the praises of Stalin in the 1930s (at the same time he was starving millions of Ukrainians).
Say it ain’t so, Xi. Another new flu virus in China….only 7 dead so far…it’s pigs again….the virus comes from human and bat and pig origins – yummy. Why is Xi telling us this? Maybe he wants some credibility? Maybe from experience he knows it will be found out anyway.
It makes no difference what the Chinese regime says about emission cuts. No one is allowed to check their numbers. They can promise a 97% drop in co2 emissions by tomorrrow, it makes no difference because China will do whatever is in their best interests anyway. The UN climate bandwaggon is defintely not part of the Road and Belt project.
See what China DOES!
China plans 226 GW of new coal power projects: environmental groups Reuters Sept 19, 2020
“Chinaās total planned coal-fired power projects now stand at 226.2 gigawatts (GW), the highest in the world and more than twice the amount of new capacity on the books in India…”
“… worldwide 400 of the 746 companies in their database were still planning to expand their coal operations.”
The projects approved by China amount to nearly 40% of the worldās total planned coal-fired power plants, according to the Global Coal Exit List database run by German environmental organization Urgewald and 30 other partner organizations.
The new China projects would be more than Germanyās existing installed power capacity of around 200 GW by the end of 2018.”
“China had 1,020 GW of coal-fired power by the end of July, amounting to 55% of its total installed capacity. A Chinese industry group has suggested total capacity could eventually settle at 1,300 GW.”
China Promotes Climate Goal, and Builds New Coal Plants
“China, though it has canceled some planned thermal power plants over the past several years, has as much as 200 GW of coal-fired facilities in its development pipeline, according to Mary Hutzler, a distinguished Senior Fellow at the Institute for Energy Research.”
Lets not forget that normal Chinese have zero influence on anything except their purchases, thanks to the CCP regime with Xi Jinping as the latest Emporer. Their press ans social media are the strictest controlled on the planet. Xi can build hundreds of coal power stations a year and still claim to be super Green without a whisper of internal protest.
The twist is that this is praised by affluent free Western Lefties, under educated, mass bedazzled or paid by Soros.
An exception on Left Green stupidity: https://www.corbettreport.com/climategate-rebunked-with-marc-morano/
“What is wrong with the world?
Xi Jinping is operating one of the most repressive Chinese regimes since Mao Zedong, with almost daily reports of persecution of foreign journalists, human rights outrages in Hong Kong, threatening Taiwan and India with war, and brutal concentration camps in Xinjiang and perhaps also Tibet, Inner Mongolia, and who knows where else.
Xi openly reveres the murderous Mao regime as an inspiration to his āreformationā plans.
Yet one whiff of greater compliance with the Paris Agreement, not even actions, just words, and an influential media group like Foreign Policy leads with the headline that China is trying to save the world.”
This is called “appeasement”.
When you fear someone, you appease them, if you can. That’s what the Western Left does when they have to deal with dictators. That’s why the Left is incapable of defending Western interests because their first impulse is to appease. They give up the fight before it even starts.
CO2 emissions are falling in China! Yes, the MSM have given China the easiest possible ride on this.
1. China stops doing really stupid things to its economy (say 1979), and the economy starts to grow fast. This is lifting millions out of grinding poverty. For the left, this is ‘a good thing’ (never mind their responsibility for the previous stupid system in the first place), and CO2 emissions are a price to pay.
2. China is growing really fast, and the left begins to use environmentalism as a tool to pursue its old ambitions (say 2000). Bring down CO2 emissions to bring down capitalism. But China is growing fast, and China is an old leftish friend (at least it still maintains the ruthless authoritarianism that made communism possible in the first place); so, what are we to say about China’s CO2 emissions. They are rising, no doubt about that. Yes, but the rate of the rise is reducing. So “China is bringing down its emissions”.
3. Emissions still obviously going up. What about this: ‘the rate of rise of CO2 emissions per capita unit of production is going down, and will do for the next fifteen years’ (translation – putting into action many stolen technologies). So “China promises to reduce emissions for the next 15 years”.
4. Then, ‘the rate of CO2 emissions per capita unit of production is going down’. So, ‘China brings down emisssions’.
5. Then, extend absurd and mendacious promises on these things, out into the future beyond responsibility or accountability: 2020, 2030, 2040, 2050.
6. Dance all these things around the rhythms of COP meetings and IPCC reports, and get them joyfully reported in the Economist, the FT, the Daily Telegraph (and probably, for the US audience, the WSJ, the NYT, and others – I haven’t personally read these regularly, but I guess from reading WUWT over the years, that they have been equally culpable; my apologies if not so).
That’s where we are. No need at all to change anything. Breakneck growth. Utter contempt for treaties, pollution, and its own population. “China is reducing its emissions; the contrast with Trump’s USA could hardly be starker”.
You don’t think Xi has hairy legs by any chance….
I have lived and worked in Hong Kong for 50 years. I have yet to notice any human rights abuses, but in recent years, particularly last year, plenty of rioting or as they’re referred to by the MSM, ‘mainly peaceful protests’, lots of crybaby student radicalism and ridiculous press outrage – totally ignoring the extreme violence by these so-called fighters for freedom and democracy. Freedom and democracy are virtually non-existent now in the West. You’ll be treated more fairly by the authorities in HK that in the UK and most certainly the USA. I don’t log on to this site to read more nonsense about how oppressive life is in Hong Kong thank you very much.
Have you ever voiced any public criticism of the Chinese leadership, G. Bailey? My guess is no.
You know the Chicoms passed a new law recently that allows them to prosecute anyone in the world for criticizing the Chinese government. If I were to criticized the Chinese goverment and then took a trip to China or Hong Kong, I would be subject to arrest and prosecution for the criticism I voiced.
The United States and the UK don’t have laws like that, G. Bailey.
Go along to get along is what people do in China and Hong Kong now. Is that what you do? Do people get credit for promoting the Chicom government? I guess you have a “credit score”, if you live over there, don’t you?
I won’t be travelling to China or Hong Kong any time soon because I have been highly critical of the Chicom crimes against humanity like loosing the Wuhan virus on the whole world or oppressing muslims who live in China, or Christians, for that matter so the Chicoms probably wouldn’t be too happy to see me. I imagine my credit score with them is about zero. I’ll wear it like a badge of honor. Psychos deserve criticism.