Does the planet matter or doesn’t it?
Today the headlines read “As the world sizzles, China says it will deal with climate its own way“, as if it made sense that the planet could be burning up and the largest emitter was clearly steaming ahead anyway. But no one got too upset in the Washington Post, or anywhere else either.
From a carbon-believer’s point of view this should be the main game, the big crisis, the drama to launch a thousand protests and fund-raisers. But there are no encampments outside the Chinese embassies, no one is calling for boycotts on Chinese goods “until they act”, and no people are gluing themselves to wharves to stop “the boats of doom” loading and unloading.
China’s intentions are pretty clear:
China’s output of carbon dioxide is set to reach a new record high in 2023. It grew 4 percent in the first quarter this year alone.
Apparently China is committed to deadlines but not to a path, or a tempo, or a public plan, or any kind of transparency:
China remained “unwaveringly” committed to reaching its peak in carbon emissions before 2030 and becoming carbon neutral by 2060, he told them this week, according to the official People’s Daily on Wednesday.
“But,” Mr. Xi added, “the pathway and means for reaching this goal, and the tempo and intensity, should be and must be determined by ourselves, and never under the sway of others.”
China is effectively saying, it has a secret plan, “Trust us”
If China has any plan at all for “carbon neutrality” it’s to go nuclear as fast as it can. It will likely overtake the US as the largest nuclear power nation in the world before 2030. But if this was the plan, why keep it a secret? Is China afraid the West will realize they should build nuclear plants too, or is it because there is no plan at all? After all, China is still building two new coal plants every week. Who believes they are constructing 100 coal plants a year but are planning for emissions to start falling consistently and meaningfully in less than seven years?
Naturally, it’s Donald Trump’s fault:
John Kerry flew to China to chat and came home with nothing but said the talks were “I think, very productive”. And The Washington Post spent the rest of the article reminding the rest of us how bad climate change will be without a single word in admonition toward the Sino contribution. The New York Times was even worse, making excuses for China and blaming, who else?
Xi Says China Will Act on Climate Goals at Its Own Pace
Lisa Friedman and
…Yet while China has built more wind and solar power than the rest of the world combined, and is on track to double its green energy capacity by 2025, the Chinese government has resisted calls to bolster its climate targets or stop the permitting of new coal-fired power plants.
There is also lingering suspicion in China that the United States could turn its back on its climate promises under a future administration, as it did under President Trump, who pulled the United States out of an international climate agreement and promoted coal growth.
“The Chinese also want to see results from the U.S. to believe it will deliver,” said Deborah Seligsohn, an assistant professor of political science at Villanova University who is based in China.
“It’s very difficult for China to manage that confidence deficit if the most important relationship for China — the U.S.-China relationship — is in free fall,” said Evan S. Medeiros, a former director for China on the National Security Council who now teaches at Georgetown University.
China, the Media, the activists, the UN — none of them act like CO2 matters — every one of them make choices that show CO2 is just the tool to accomplish something else. It’s fame, or sabotage, or power and control, but it isn’t “the climate”.