Guest essay by Eric Worrall
According to the Financial Times, the deteriorating relationship between the USA and China has triggered a collapse in renewable investment, a resurgence in coal, and has turned Greta Thunberg into a Chinese Nationalist hate figure.
Climate change: how China moved from leader to laggard
Beijing’s U-turn on renewables is triggering alarm ahead of UN meeting
Leslie Hook in Baoding
The smoggy city of Baoding is known for two things: donkey burgers, and solar panels. An industrial centre just south of Beijing — 45 minutes via high-speed rail — the city’s high-tech zone styles itself as “Power Valley” because it is home to so many solar manufacturers.
But for Vincent Yu, deputy general manager at Yingli Solar, one of the first renewables companies to set up in the city, business has been difficult lately. “These last two years, there has been a lot of pressure. The subsidies for solar projects have fallen,” Mr Yu says. New solar installations in China — running at 53 gigawatts in 2017 when demand peaked — will be about 40 per cent lower this year, he estimates.
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The company is the highest profile casualty of a change in policy that is being felt across the renewable energy sector in a country once celebrated as the world’s clean energy champion. Chinese investment in clean energy is plummeting — down from $76bn during the first half of 2017, to $29bn during the first half of this year.
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Mr Li says deteriorating relations between the US and China — along with the unrest in Hong Kong — have helped fuel a growing nationalist sentiment and a broader anger at the west.
One of the targets of this nationalist ire has been Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenage activist who is revered as a climate hero in some parts of the world. “Many netizens see [Greta] as representing the general liberal western agenda,” says Mr Li. “There is this larger perspective that the west is ganging up against China.”
At the same time, coal appears to be again in the ascendant with Li Keqiang, China’s premier, last month identifying it as a priority area. China remains the world’s biggest producer. Many see this as part of a growing focus on energy security in Beijing, a result of Chinese leaders being spooked by deteriorating relations with the west. “Energy security anxiety is a blessing for the coal [sector] in China,” says Mr Tu.
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Read more: https://www.ft.com/content/be1250c6-0c4d-11ea-b2d6-9bf4d1957a67
You can see where this is heading – when next week’s COP25 climate talks inevitably collapse, this time everyone will claim the failure is President Trump’s fault for upsetting China.
Correct, Mike. These idiots still think they can destroy billions of people’s lifestyles and see out their retirement behind the walls of their gated communities. It takes a lot to rile the ordinary Joe, but the thing that always gets them on the streets is screwing with their personal money.
“It takes a lot to rile the ordinary Joe, but the thing that always gets them on the streets is screwing with their personal money.”
That’s right. That’s why we are seeing the protests in France and now in Iran, where the Iranian government raised gasoline prices.
That’s why the Green New Deal is DOA (Dead on Arrival), once people understand what it will cost them personally.
You need REALLY low self-esteem to pay much heed to a teenaged high school dropout throwing a tantrum. In limousine liberal precincts of the West, such virtue-signalers are surprisingly common. In the rest of the world, where the struggle to survive is more urgent, crabby teenagers are less enthralling. Third-worlders are less likely to use goofy words like “self-esteem.” They’re busy with real stuff like food, clothing, and shelter.
Greta is just a minor spoke in the wheel of the US + Chinese 1% making giant profits; Trump is the main road block. The 99% rest can only hope that he succeeds.
Kissinger unintentionally created the US strongest adversary, leaving Russia behind in the dust.
Giving Trump credit for the collapse of climate talks is like giving Newton credit for the existence of gravity. Trump can certainly claim to be one of the first national leaders to point out the nonsense of the climate crusade but when the talks collapse it will be due to the mighty weight of reality.
Yup; anthropogenic warming will be net beneficial and anthropogenic greening cornu-conspicuously-copic.
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Greta was being groomed to be the new saint of the global warming movement. Al Gore has become old and stale. After all his forecasts in the movie “An Inconvenient Truth” failed he has become kind of discredited. But Greta was supposed to be the new spokesman. The new future. She was supposed to get the Nobel Prize and be the guiding star of the new generation in their holy crusade.
But it didn’t go as the global warming elites expected. Instead of the public rallying to Greta as the virgin god of global warming the public laughed at her “how dare you” speech and at her childish simplicity. So she is no longer useful to the leaders of global warming. She will quietly fade away now. Who knows – maybe she will even go back to school and get her high school diploma.
The Chinese needed some “green” posturing by developing solar power, especially to try to sell them to the West, using their dominance in the rare-earth metals market. But then they figured out that coal power was cheaper for their own use.
The Chinese government is a master of propaganda, and knows how to take advantage of “useful idiots” like Greta Thunberg, and dump them when they become inconvenient. Western elites and “intellectuals” can rant all they want about Chinese hypocrisy, but we all must understand that the Chinese are NOT stupid, and they have four times our population.
President Trump has understood this, and is willing to challenge China where the USA can prevail, and leave things alone in areas where China is stronger.
No surprise here that this western establishment supported puppet gets roasted by the other, most populous part of the world.
Although the tone, as usual smacks of sinophobia -no one needs to be nationalist to acknowledge the ridicule of the Thunbergmania-, it is a logical consequence. Just as for Y2K, or the Icelandic volcano no fly day -in NATO air space- that others ignored.
It’s now apparent NO ONE took the Paris Accords seriously except wooly-headed liberals and Malthusian mass-murder fanatics. Outlets such as Bezos’ WAPO are freaking out since the truth is so obvious.
Meanwhile Green Energy is falling apart. In Germany the wind-power industry is collapsing… the population has turned against wind power… it’s a blight on the landscape and hazardous to health… unreliable and ultimately very expensive.
Meanwhile China is running away from Green Energy Tech as fast as possible and specifically slashing solar panel subsidies. It cost China at least $76 B to learn what a boondoggle Green tech is. And furthermore, how exposed to energy shortages it leaves China in the event of hostilities.
I love the claim of how China’s alleged leadership in renewables was somehow thwarted by the US.
People can’t seem to accept the fact China had them duped even when they had it demonstrated right in front of their faces.
Climate religious zealotry will lead to war.
This is as certain as night follows day.
Some nations will self-flagellate due to climate fanaticism.
Others will not.
The former will declare a jihad against the latter.
It will happen 2030-2040.
The Chinese government is a master of propaganda, and knows how to take advantage of “useful idiots” like Greta Thunberg, and dump them when they become inconvenient. Western elites and “intellectuals” can rant all they want about Chinese hypocrisy, but we all must understand that the Chinese are NOT stupid, and they have four times our population.People can’t seem to accept the fact China had them duped even when they had it demonstrated right in front of their faces.
The phantasto-radical water-melons from the ultra-left green religion in the western world against the crony-corporatist red-Ponzi masters of the world. Where is the popcorn?