cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/22189256
The latest data, for the first quarter of 2025, shows that China’s CO2 emissions have now been stable or falling for more than a year, as shown in the figure below.
However, with emissions remaining just 1% below the recent peak, it remains possible that they could jump once again to a new record high.
Outside of the power sector, emissions increased 3.5%, with the largest rises in the use of coal in the metals and chemicals industries.
Sector-by-sector analysis suggests that, in addition to the power sector, emissions have likely also peaked in the building materials and steel sectors, as well as oil products consumption.
Oh my, it couldn’t be related to the US massively reducing their demand on the country’s manufacture, could it?! If more people stopped demanding cheap, unnecessary, poor quality products with high environmental and ethical costs, maybe China’s emissions will drop even further!
No. It’s because they are adding a fuck load of solar panels every day. They are leading the world by an insane margin. They got a lot of shitty things going on over there but they are crushing it on clean energy
Noone ever believes me when I tell them that at >20% yearly growth, solar alone is going to overtake fossil in a decade
People don’t understand how growth works. And there’s a lot of fossil fuel propaganda (“what are you going to do at night / when there’s no wind”). You can deal with those things using batteries, pumped storage and by shifting load.
Solar panel cost drops -50% each 11-12 years too. It’s crazy actually.
I have done some napkin calculations and those 400W balcony panels (full kit) are paid off in around 5 years. And it’s just getting better and better.
Then we must invent some way of transporting electricity, like cables, pylons or something 😉
Throw the electricity into the trunk of my car I’ll drive it over to the next town that needs it. Just clear some room next to my backpack
That’s what I keep telling delayers who always say that China pollutes so much it’s not worth doing any effort without them. The day that the Chinese government decides to go green it will be done in a matter of years, the day that the US decides to go green it will be done in a matter of decades.
I personally suspect the crash in solar panel prices is a result of them deciding to get on with fixing the problem. Basically turn it from a political problem to an economic one.
They are also pushing hard for both modern nuclear fission and nuclear fusion power. Once they start coming online in bulk, their CO2 output will likely plummet.
This is good news but I hate the title. It makes it sound like they are fixing more carbon than they are producing. Its more that its decelerating. Which is awesome.
The reduction in China’s first-quarter CO2 emissions in 2025 was due to a 5.8% drop in the power sector. While power demand grew by 2.5% overall, there was a 4.7% drop in thermal power generation – mainly coal and gas.
This is catching up to Europe’s FF use declines (10%+ in 2024) in power sector. The overall reduction in emissions isn’t that big because China is doing something pretty crazy and highly emittive. It is making liquid fuels from coal. Geopolitics forces it to for independence.
