China is building almost twice as many solar and wind farms as all other countries in the world combined, according to a new study.
The world’s second largest economy emits the most greenhouse gases that accelerate climate change, and has committed to peak carbon emissions by 2030 and reduce them to net zero by 2060.
In recent months, China has been hit by several extreme weather events that have been exacerbated by climate change.
China is currently building 339 GV of renewable energy capacity, including 159 GV of wind power and 180 GV of solar power, equivalent to 64 percent of new global capacity.
That’s “almost twice as much as the rest of the world combined,” according to research by Global Energy Monitor, an American non-governmental organization. In this respect, it is far ahead of the second-placed USA, which builds only 40 GVs.
China has begun preparations to build a third of the wind and solar capacity it has announced so far, compared to a global average of just 7 percent. However, this comes with some drawbacks. China’s power grid relies on coal-fired power plants when demand for energy rises, which finds it difficult to transport renewable energy produced in remote northwestern regions to economic centers in the east.
But China’s total wind and solar power capacity is expected to surpass coal this year.
The rapid development of renewable energy sources raises hopes that China’s carbon emissions will peak earlier than expected.
In a separate report, the Center for Energy and Clean Air Research (CREA) said China issued no new permits for coal-fired steel plants in the first half of 2024.
It is the first time on a semi-annual basis that no new permits have been issued since China announced two carbon targets in September 2020, which an independent research organization hailed as a possible “watershed”. The two goals relate to peak carbon emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.
Almost two-thirds of the world’s large solar and wind power plants are currently being built in China, according to a study by the American institute Global Energy Monitor (GEM) from Thursday, with the US in second place.
The Asian giant thus convincingly took the first place in the world ranking, preparing new capacities for the production of electricity from solar and wind energy almost eight times larger than those in the USA.
Thanks to China, the goal of tripling renewable electricity generation capacity by the end of 2030 is now “within reach”, even if hydropower capacity is not increased, the US institute concludes, urging Beijing to present even more ambitious targets. in the UN next year.
Beijing is also on track to meet its 2030 goal of connecting 1,200 gigawatts of solar and wind power to the grid by the end of the month, the Australian Climate Finance Institute said last week.
E2 portal (NIN)
Source: www.e2.rs
