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196 points triceratops | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.208s | source
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jryan49 ◴[] 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 ◴[] 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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1. Waterluvian ◴[] No.45109486[source]
I’m not sure it’s absolutely knowable. These are all just opinions. But I feel that China is far more likely to actually care about the climate than America is.

One of the benefits of being a pseudodemocratic centralized government is that you can kind of decide something is important without worrying how to get reelected in a few years. All it takes is a leadership that decides this is their vanity project to be remembered by, or perhaps to actually care about China in 100 years (the Americans obviously can’t think or see this far anymore). This is possibly helped by having a population with a culture of collectivism. For better or worse you don’t have to actually solve the “what’s in it for me?” question that seems to completely screw climate plans when the plan is, “it’ll suck for you but your grandkids will appreciate it.”