WEIFANG, CHINA – China is installing about as many solar panels and wind turbines as the rest of the world combined, and is on track to meet its target for clean energy six years early. It is using renewables to meet nearly all of the growth in its electricity needs.
Yet there is another side to that rapid expansion, one that is causing consternation in Washington at a critical period of climate diplomacy: China is also building new power plants that burn coal, the dirtiest of the fossil fuels, at a pace that dwarfs the rest of the world.
China accounts for one-third of the world’s energy-related greenhouse gas emissions – more than North America, Central America, South America, Europe and Africa combined.
Mr John Kerry, US President Joe Biden’s special envoy for climate change, is hosting his Chinese counterpart, Mr Xie Zhenhua, for talks that started on Friday at the Sunnylands estate in Southern California, according to two people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss planning details. Former US president Barack Obama and China’s leader Xi Jinping began a joint push for climate action a decade ago at Sunnylands.
“Sunnylands is a symbolic place – it’s where the first US-China climate seeds were planted,” said Greenpeace East Asia policy adviser Li Shuo.
Two weeks later, climate will most likely be on the agenda when Mr Biden is expected to meet Mr Xi in San Francisco at the summit of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation countries. Then world leaders will gather in Dubai at the start of December for COP28, the latest round of global climate negotiations.
It is not an exaggeration to say the health of the planet depends on the actions of the United States and China. The US has pumped the most carbon dioxide into the atmosphere over the past two centuries, and China is the current largest polluter. Their willingness to slash emissions will essentially determine whether the planet continues to dangerously heat up, leading to the disappearance of coral reefs, ice-free Arctic summers and widespread displacement from intensified storms, floods and wildfires.
But more than ever, decisions made in Beijing could outweigh those made in Washington or European capitals.
“China’s annual emissions are so massive that cutting them is now the key to any hope of preventing global temperature spikes and climate disasters,” said Mr Paul Bledsoe, a former Clinton administration climate official.
In Shandong province, a peninsular hub of heavy industry between Beijing and Shanghai, China’s energy decisions are plainly visible. Solar panels interspersed with immense wind turbines stretch into the distance on the province’s north coast. More wind turbines and solar panels festoon hillsides and cornfields in the interior. On rooftops and sometimes the south-facing walls of apartment towers, solar panel installations soak up the sun’s energy.
Solar power producers in Shandong generate so much electricity at midday, exceeding demand, that they sometimes have to pay the provincial transmission grid to accept it. They do so to continue collecting government subsidies based on how many kilowatt-hours they produce.
In some ways, China has come further in addressing climate change than almost anyone expected several years ago. Mr Xi announced in December 2020 that China planned to triple its wind and solar capacity by 2030. China is on track to reach that target by the end of next year, said Mr Frank Haugwitz, a solar industry consultant who specializes in China’s data.
