China is building coal plants faster than a Democrat can stuff a ballot box, earning it the glorious distinction of being the world’s leader in CO2 and air pollution emissions.
But the usual suspects aren’t losing their minds. Greta has never protested there, and extinction rebellion is extinct.
China owns most of the mines, digging up rare earth metals to make the graven green idols of the new energy left. China is also a leader in ocean pollution and ocean plastic, but bringing any of that is Asian hate speech. A problem Cult stenographers at Reuters are addressing head-on. Yeah, China emits a lot of CO2, but it’s different.
It makes sense from an economic and geopolitical perspective to power China’s vehicle fleet using domestic electricity rather than imported crude oil.
The question is then whether China can meet its climate goals by switching increasingly to NEVs, which will be powered by a coal-heavy electricity grid for decades to come.
China used coal for about 63% of its electricity generation in 2022, with hydropower coming in second at 14%, and other renewable energies such as wind generating 9% and solar 5%.
China is also the world’s biggest installer of renewable power sources and is expanding its nuclear fleet as well, but coal is expected to remain the bedrock of electricity production, even as its share of generation gradually decreases.
But even using a predominantly coal-fired grid to charge NEVs is better from a climate perspective, insofar as an electric vehicle powered by a 60% coal-fired grid will produce lower lifecycle emissions that a similar ICE vehicle.
The author is crazy excited about China doing whatever it takes to reduce oil imports, even if it means burning tons of dirty coal. They’ve even done the math for us. An E need only drive 79,000 miles, even on coal, for the profile to reduce emissions. They then promise these vehicles will last to 170,000, so ta-dah, coal is better, and isn’t China wonderful?
As I understand it, China doesn’t use or require stack scrubbers. The author does not calculate the carbon cost of replacing the lithium pack, which will never make it to 170,000 miles and may even need ot be replaced twice to achieve that. There is no calculation for other realities like power loss, bleed, declining range, and how EVs are easily “totaled” from even the simplest of auto collisions.
Or that China will likely never shoot itself in the face by demanding EV embrace or anything approaching the electric future envisioned by Western progressives.
What it is doing is burning coal to shore up its military-industrial complex and commercial global dominance and using cheap, abundant energy to advance its global political agenda while selling the rope to the West with which its elites have chosen to hang us all.
And if you complain about that, I can only assume you’ll be called a racist, even though Democrats hate Asians almost as much as white Europeans.
HT | Real Climate Science
