China Installed More Solar Panels Last Year Than the U.S. Has in Total::China installed more new solar capacity last year than the total amount ever installed in any other country.

  • Altofaltception@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    There’s a reason the US is targeting China from various fronts (trade restrictions, sanctions, etc.). China is a powerhouse and the US is terrified of being left behind.

    • sir_reginald@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      I don’t get why you’re getting dowvoted. I guess there are a lot of Americans over here. But your statement is absolutely true. The US attempts at restricting China’s access to various technologies only make sense if they feel threatened by them.

    • Wanderer@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      China is doing a lot of shady stuff though.

      If the US really wanted to resolve it they would do more about patient infringement and spend more money on research.

    • nednobbins@lemm.ee
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      3 months ago

      A lot of people don’t realize how quickly China is changing. Things that were true just a few decades ago are often no longer true.

      Once China decided that pollution was a problem they went all in on addressing it. China has massive reforestation projects, huge incentives to switch to EVs, and much tighter energy efficiency standards.

      Solar isn’t even their only renewable energy source. China gets about equal amounts from solar, wind and hydro https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/market-insights/latest-news/energy-transition/013124-coal-still-accounted-for-nearly-60-of-chinas-electricity-supply-in-2023-cec together they make up a little less than half of their total energy production and the ratio keeps improving. correction: those are projected ratios, not current ratios.

      Of course, on a per capita basis, China isn’t even close to being a top polluter. Unless you think that people in smaller countries deserve to pollute more, per-capita is the better measurement. China looks a little worse if you do that but it’s still far from a top polluter by that metric.

    • Nesola@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      That is producing for the rest of the world and especially for the west. It’s hypocritical to blame china while buying stuff that had to be cheaper and cheaper.

      • RememberTheApollo@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        No, it’s not hypocritical. Yes, anyone with half a brain knows China makes a huge chunk of the world’s stuff.

        A nation can make choices as to what energy sources they use and China went balls to the wall with coal. That wasn’t a choice the buyers of Chinese products made.

        • Land_Strider@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          Lol look what they are spending the money they earn from those industries. At least they are not solely funding decades long genocide but actually doing something about the emissions they take on.

      • Gigan@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        I don’t think that absolves China of any blame. They’re still choosing to produce cheap goods at the expense of the planet, because it’s good business for them too.

        • essteeyou@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          If not them then it’d be someone else. Clearly they’re starting to take polluting seriously.

          If you look at CO2 emissions per capita then China is actually doing better than countries like Canada, the US, and Singapore. Assuming I haven’t completely misread that table.

          • PatFusty@lemm.ee
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            5 months ago

            CO2 emissions are carefully curated and we are not even that good at calculating them. I wouldn’t trust any of this info coming from China let alone from any nation.

              • PatFusty@lemm.ee
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                3 months ago

                Big dog 2 months… If you knew how companies figure out their pollution metrics you would be very sad.

                As for a better metric, I don’t know. Everything is tied to cost so it’s really dumb

                • nednobbins@lemm.ee
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                  3 months ago

                  Not sure why you’re so hung up on dogs or 2 months. The thread still shows up in searches and you’re clearly getting updates on it. Unless there’s some evidence to suggest the information in this thread is now obsolete, there’s no reason not to respond.

                  @esteeyou@lemmy.world made a claim and provided evidence. Unless there’s better evidence to the contrary it’s reasonable to accept the claim. My children sometimes still respond to arguments with, “Nuh uh.” I generally expect more from adults.

        • nednobbins@lemm.ee
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          3 months ago

          Production will always have some waste and pollution. China has high pollution because we do a lot of production there. As I pointed out above, on both a per-capita and a per-production basis China pollutes less than many industrialized nations (US. Germany, Japan, South Korea, Canada, Taiwan) and many developing nations (Singapore, Malaysia).

          Given current manufacturing data, moving production out of China to other countries would likely increase pollution.

  • conditional_soup@lemm.ee
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    5 months ago

    Currently seeing the US climate narrative shift from “why should we stop burning fossils and get our shit together when China won’t? >:(” to “why should we stop burning fossils and get our shit together when Senegal won’t? >:(” Can’t wait for 20 years from now when we’re balls deep in climate disasters, Senegal gets its shit together, and the US narrative moves to honduras El Salvador Uganda comparing itself to the Philippines.

    Holy crap you guys, it turns out that the narrative that the developing world is going to burn an ass-ton of fossil fuels is a lot weaker than I thought. It looks like there’s a fuckton of equatorial and global south countries with renewables/hydro power, Honduras is even adding Geothermal. God damn it, USA, get off your ass and fix your shit already.

    • rusticus@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      We’ve moved from 17% to 40% of total energy production coming from renewables since 2020. Thanks to Biden policies. Even though according to reddit he’s an incontinent dementia patient.