When many of us hear the words ‘China’ and ‘Energy’ we immediately think
of coal power stations, polluting factories and cities full of smog.
And why not?
It’s by far the world’s biggest emitter of carbon emissions, it consumes way more energy than any
other country and whereas other big nations have agreed to phase out coal, China hasn’t.
Because of this it’s become the lead villain in the fight against climate change -
the one country that everyone says is to blame for this whole mess.
Now while that's understandable, it’s not entirely accurate.
Yes, China’s fossil fuel use is astronomical, but it’s also the world’s largest installer of
renewable power - by some distance - and it's set to go much bigger.
The country is leading the way in other clean energy technologies
and the scale of its carbon-cutting plans has taken many by surprise.
So, is it time we were less harsh on China when it comes to energy,
or could this turn out to just be smoke and mirrors?
When we say China produces more carbon emissions than anyone else, we really do mean it.
In 2019 over a quarter of the entire world’s greenhouse gases came from China.
That’s more than twice as much as the US in second place.
The country now has over 1,000 coal power plants in operation - more than half the global total.
“On the global perspective China is obviously the world's largest emitter of CO2 because of the very
high reliance on coal and also the massive emissions from its construction industry.”
Lauri Myllyvirta is lead analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air,
based in Helsinki.
“Over the past decade China's been responsible
for two thirds of the increase in global emissions. So that makes it very hard for
global emissions to peak and decline without China's emissions growth at least slowing down.”
Although it now has a target of net-zero carbon by 2060 - that means reducing
emissions as much as possible and balancing out the rest by removing
carbon from the atmosphere - other big nations have said they’ll do it quicker.
You can understand, then, why China is seen by many
as the leading cause of our current predicament.
But there’s another side to this story, and that's the enormity of China’s renewable energy projects.
For years now, the country has been the world’s biggest generator of wind and solar power;
in fact, it’s in a whole league of its own, and the gap is widening.
In 2020, it added more wind power to its energy mix than the entire world
did in 2019 - the largest figure ever recorded.
Solar power is also booming,
with China responsible for around a third of the world’s energy generated from the sun.
But it isn't investing so much into renewables because of international
pressure and the demand for yet more energy – although those are both key factors.
“China is obviously vulnerable to climate change, especially water resources,
food security, which are central issues to the party and to the government.
The floods this summer were one of the first times that extreme weather like this
was attributed to climate change by Chinese scientists and that is certainly driving the
message home that this is also something that is in China's own self-interest to act on.”
Now, while the overall capacity of China’s renewable energy system may be astonishing,
the individual projects are pretty immense too.
Recently, the country completed construction of a 2.2GW solar plant in Qinghai, almost
the biggest in the world by capacity - a record currently held by the Bhadla Solar Park in India.
There are also reports it could be massively expanded to 10GW, which would not just give
it the top spot, but make it over three times bigger than any other station on Earth today.
Floating solar power, where panels are mounted to a buoyant platform,
is another new area that China leads the way in.
Some of the biggest installations in the world can be found right here.
These are just a few examples of China’s plans to build increasingly large renewable hubs.
Rumours of a gigantic new 400GW wind and solar megaproject were seemingly confirmed
by President Xi himself in October 2021, with a 100GW first phase already underway.
Details of precisely where it’s happening are unclear, but it’s likely to be in the vast
desert region to the west of the country, where the bulk of the other big farms are.
That’s one of the reasons why China is building so much more than everyone else - it has the space.
Even though most of the energy is needed on the other side of the country where
the main cities and industrial centres are, it’s not been too big a problem.
“Many other countries are struggling to get planning permits and environmental permits,
especially for long-distance transmission lines, which tend to be very hard in Europe,
many parts of the United States and so on.
There is an advantage in having a centralised decision-making system
that can override some of those challenges.”
Another reason why China is trying to be less reliant on coal is because it kind of has to.
Rises in coal prices have seen power plants lower their output so they don’t lose money,
which has led to severe blackouts and power shortages.
Having more renewable energy in the mix would take some strain off the coal network.
Despite all of this, China’s emissions continue to grow.
Although it has said these will peak by 2030, that could still leave almost a decade more
of rising fossil fuels when other big economies are already cutting theirs.
China is still constructing coal plants too,
adding around 40GW of new coal power in 2020 alone.
But it has pledged to stop building them abroad
in a move that could make a big difference to global emissions.
“There's no more international financing available for new coal
for countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Pakistan,
Turkey that have relied heavily on overseas financing to expand their coal fleet.
That really means they have to have a serious rethink about their energy plans.”
It’s not as if China is severing ties completely,
leaving these countries quite literally in the dark.
Instead, it plans to offer similar support for clean energy, giving nations that have struggled
to transition away from fossil fuels a helping hand - for a price, of course.
Then there’s China’s ambition to become a leader in other areas of clean energy, such as battery
storage and technologies that are yet to be properly developed but show plenty of promise.
The Inner Mongolia region, historically one of its largest coal mining areas,
is where China plans to build a ‘mega-plant’ for the production of green hydrogen,
which could become the first of its kind in the world.
Hydrogen becomes ‘green’ when it is generated using 100% clean power rather than coal
or natural gas and potential uses include fuel cells for vehicles and home heating.
Several countries are in a race to master the technology
and you wouldn’t bet against China being the one to do it.
So, when you weigh everything up, does China deserve to be criticised in the
way it is today or is it a bit misunderstood?
And perhaps more importantly, is it actually going to deliver on what it’s said it's going to do?
“The government will certainly make sure that they meet what they've pledged so far.
Right now, what's in preparation is sectoral implementation plans for key sectors such as
steel, cement, non-ferrous metals, power, transport and so on.
And that's where we would hope to see some of that detail about how ambitious the targets
are going to be over this decade, and that's really going to set the pace.”
While it’s clear many people aren’t aware of the more positive stuff
China is doing and the progress being made, it has a lot of work to do if it’s
to meet its promises and have the finger of blame pointed elsewhere.
Even though every country has a part to play in this, you can’t help but
feel the battle to beat climate change is going to be won or lost in China.
If you enjoyed this video and want to learn more about where construction is headed,
make sure you’re subscribed to Tomorrow’s Build.