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U.S. Emissions Rise 4.2%, China's Fall 2.7%

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196 points triceratops | 3 comments | 02 Sep 25 20:02 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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jryan49 ◴[02 Sep 25 20:37 UTC] No.45108691[source]▶
Is there a future where China uses this as leverage with the rest of the world to put sanctions on the US if we don't transition?
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Workaccount2 ◴[02 Sep 25 20:42 UTC] No.45108771[source]▶
China is doing this for energy independence. Their fossil fuel supply chain is critically vulnerable. They don't care about the climate, but will happily play the optics.
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bgnn ◴[02 Sep 25 20:56 UTC] No.45108940[source]▶
Neither the US cares about the climate amd doesn't care about the optics either.

This is capitalism in action: solar is cheaper than anything else per kwh. The obsession with fossil in the West is due to the fossil fuel lobbies, not because of the rational market forces. China doesn't have that.

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chrisco255 ◴[02 Sep 25 21:30 UTC] No.45109310[source]▶
China continues to get the bulk of their energy from fossil fuels. 56% from coal. China has double the emissions of the USA and new construction for coal plants reached a 10 year high in 2024:

https://www.carbonbrief.org/chinas-construction-of-new-coal-...

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1. NoLinkToMe ◴[02 Sep 25 21:43 UTC] No.45109476{3}[source]▶
The entire world gets the bulk of their energy from fossil. One country is leading the pack in defossiling their economy relatively rapidly, and that's China. Double emissions of the US translates to half-emissions on a per-capita basis. Much less if you include historical emissions. And China's emissions dropped in the previous period, the US increased.

The coal plants are known to be built to support economic growth for one (simple truth), and as baseload for renewable sources (you simply can't go renewable without this, at the moment). Coal plant utilisation rates have been dropping for two decades and are expected to keep dropping. [0]

[0] https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!DJUu!,w_1456,c_limit...

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2. ViewTrick1002 ◴[02 Sep 25 22:02 UTC] No.45109703[source]▶
China is also massively scaling storage to complement the renewables.

https://www.ess-news.com/2025/08/20/cnesa-chinas-new-energy-...

3. bryanlarsen ◴[03 Sep 25 01:46 UTC] No.45111408[source]▶
China's coal plants aren't base load, they're peakers, which is what you need in a renewable heavy grid.