The world's largest emitter is investing more in coal due to its energy dilemma: drought and sweltering heat for two months brought China an energy security problem. For instance, the southwest province of Sichuan depends on dams to provide around 80% of its electricity, making the development of hydropower essential to China's achievement of its net-zero emissions objective by 2060.
(Photo : Ellison Carter)
Although climate analysts welcome the long-term target, they are worried that allowing emissions to continue to climb over the next ten years would exhaust the global carbon budget. If China struggles on emissions, the rest of the planet will fail on containing serious climate change, Matthew Gray, co-chief executive of TransitionZero, said. However, the stars are starting to converge in China s favor in terms of cracking its coal addiction.
The discovery that replacing coal with green energy could save China money in the short and long term raises the possibility of a decisive shift away from coal in the coming years.