Nakonec bude Cina svetovym leadrem v dekarbonizaci. Kdo by to pred par lety rekl...

China's CO2 emissions have started falling – is this finally the peak? | New Scientist
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2480289-chinas-co2-emissions-have-started-falling-is-this-finally-the-peak/

China, the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide, has seen a slight decline in those emissions over the past twelve months, even as demand for power has gone up. This is an encouraging sign the country’s massive buildout of clean energy has begun to displace fossil fuels – but emissions could still surge again.

That is according to an analysis of China’s economic and energy data by Lauri Myllivirta at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, a research organisation in Finland. According to the report, published in Carbon Brief, China’s CO2 emissions have declined by 1 per cent over the past 12 months; in the first quarter of 2025 alone emissions declined by 1.6 per cent relative to last year.
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This isn’t the first time China’s CO2 emissions have dipped. For instance, they dropped in 2022 as the economy came to a standstill during covid-19 lockdowns. But this is the first time emissions have fallen even as the country has used more power. “That, of course, means the current fall in emissions has a much better chance of being sustained,” says Myllivirta.

This is mainly a consequence of China’s record build-out of solar, wind and nuclear power, which is beginning to eat into the total electricity generated by burning fossil fuels. Wider economic shifts away from cement and steel production, which are carbon-intensive industries, have also contributed to the decline. Another factor is the jump in the share of people driving electric vehicles, which has cut into the demand for oil.

If China maintains these trends, its carbon emissions could continue to fall. A sustained drop would indicate the country has passed peak emissions, putting it several years ahead of its 2030 target. The achievement would represent a substantial physical and psychological milestone for efforts to tackle climate change, says Myllivirta.

Dramatic cuts in China’s air pollution drove surge in global warming | New Scientist
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2474067-dramatic-cuts-in-chinas-air-pollution-drove-surge-in-global-warming/

A recent surge in the rate of global warming has been largely driven by China’s efforts to reduce air pollution, raising questions about how air quality regulations are influencing the climate and whether we fully understand the impact of removing aerosols from the atmosphere. This extra warming, which was being masked by the aerosols, accounts for 5 per cent of global temperature increase since 1850.

related

Car tyres shed a quarter of all microplastics in the environment – urgent action is needed | University of Portsmouth
https://www.port.ac.uk/news-events-and-blogs/blogs/protecting-our-environment/car-tyres-shed-a-quarter-of-all-microplastics-in-the-environment-urgent-action-is-needed

Every year, billions of vehicles worldwide shed an estimated 6 million tonnes of tyre fragments. These tiny flakes of plastic, generated by the wear and tear of normal driving, eventually accumulate in the soil, in rivers and lakes, and even in our food. Researchers in South China recently found tyre-derived chemicals in most human urine samples.

These tyre particles are a significant but often-overlooked contributor to microplastic pollution. They account for 28% of microplastics entering the environment globally.

Despite the scale of the issue, tyre particles have flown under the radar. Often lumped in with other microplastics, they are rarely treated as a distinct pollution category, yet their unique characteristics demand a different approach.

Trump plans to use emergency powers to fast-track generation co-located with AI | Utility Dive
https://www.utilitydive.com/news/trump-emergency-co-located-power-plants-ai-data-center-davos/738209/

President Donald Trump plans to speed power plant development for co-located artificial intelligence data centers using his energy emergency declaration, he said Thursday.

“I can get the approvals done myself without having to go through years of waiting,” Trump told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “I’m going to give emergency declarations so that they can start building them almost immediately.”

...

“We need to double the energy we currently have in the United States … for AI to really be as big as we want to have it” to compete with China and other countries, Trump said

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Co-locating generation and data centers “was largely my idea,” Trump said. “Nobody thought this was possible … I told them that what I want you to do is build your electric generating plant right next to your plant as a separate building connected.”

Coal-fired generation could be used as a backup for the data centers, according to Trump. “Nothing can destroy coal, not the weather, not a bomb, nothing,” Trump said. “It might make it a little smaller, might make it a little different shape, but coal is very strong as a backup.”

meanwhile, EU goes skanzen

China's solar, wind power installations soared to record in 2024
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/chinas-solar-wind-power-installed-capacity-soars-2024-2025-01-21/

China broke its own records for new wind and solar power installations again last year, official data showed on Tuesday, accelerating from a breakneck pace set in 2023 as the country looks to peak its carbon emissions before 2030.

Installed solar and wind power capacity climbed 45.2% and 18%, respectively, in 2024, the National Energy Administration said on Tuesday.

There is now 886.67 GW of installed solar power, up from 609.49 GW in 2023, it said. The United States had 139 GW in 2023, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency

The installations mean China in July hit its 2030 target six years ahead of schedule, underscoring the speed of its clean energy rollout at a time when President Donald Trump has pulled the United States out of the Paris climate deal for a second time and pledged to make it easier to drill for oil and gas.

By 2030, solar power capacity should meaningfully outstrip coal, which still dominates China's grid, at 1,780 GW to 1,440 GW, state-owned oil major China National Petroleum Company said at a separate briefing.

Last in August, China's state planner unveiled a three-year plan to upgrade the power system, increasing its use of renewable energy and easing the strain of rising power demand on the national grid.

TUHO: TUHO: Jo a jeste teda koukam, ze vyrazne posilujou i energy storage, kde jsou take vyrazne vepredu oproti EU. Vypustte Zlamalovou, at dela hystericky vlny, ze "To Evropa nemuze prezit"

https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/06/next-step-for-china-s-clean-energy-transition-is-storage-deployment-in-its-world-class-industries/

Mezitim Cina


Lauri Myllyvirta
@laurimyllyvirta
Just out: Solar power additions in China in 2024 exceeded expectations, again, with a whopping 277 GW installed in just one year! This was up 28% on the already towering 217 GW added in 2023.

Wind power made a new record as well, with 79 GW added to the grid, up 5% on year.

On the morning of November 28, China's newest nuclear power plant, a Hualong One reactor at Zhangzhou in Fujian, connected to the grid just just 61 months after construction.

How does China build these so fast? Let's review the timeline.

x.com
https://x.com/pretentiouswhat/status/1863886994029314134?s=19

Fury as US argues against climate obligations at top UN court | Climate crisis | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/dec/04/us-climate-crisis-legal-court

Australia, China and Saudi Arabia – major fossil fuel economies and among the world’s worst greenhouse gas emitters – also argued against legal accountability that developing nations are pushing for.

After years of campaigning by vulnerable nations and the global climate justice movement, the UN asked the ICJ to provide an advisory opinion on what obligations states have to tackle climate change and what the legal consequences could be if they fail to do so. More than 100 countries and organisations are testifying over the course of two weeks, and many hope the hearings will elevate science to the forefront, ensuring international law reflects the realities of climate breakdown and the urgent need for transformative action

Handful of countries responsible for climate crisis, top court told | Climate crisis | The Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/dec/02/handful-of-countries-responsible-for-climate-crisis-icj-court-told

Over the next two weeks, the court will hear statements from 98 nations, including wealthy developed nations with the greatest historical responsibility for the climate emergency, such as the UK and Russia, and states that have contributed very little to global greenhouse gas emissions but stand to bear the brunt of their impact, including Bangladesh and Sudan as well as Pacific island nations.

The US and China, the world’s biggest emitters, will make statements too, even though neither fully recognises the court’s authority.

Regenvanu told the court that states continued to emit vast amounts of greenhouse gases in spite of “increasingly dire warnings” from scientists, noting that emissions had increased by more than 50% since 1990.

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Wewerinke-Singh said responsible states were required to make full reparation for the injury they had caused and this must be “proportionate to historic contributions to the harm”. She said this could include monetary compensation in addition to cash committed under the UNFCCC.

PER2: Na toto téma
The End of China's Rise and the Future of World Order│Michael Beckley (Tufts University, Professor)
https://youtu.be/IEJcDJq1Mgw?si=MxiCmA3GMg2Q9Bsc

PER2:

Trump's Anti-Climate Agenda Could Help China Dominate Global Markets | Scientific American
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/trumps-anti-climate-agenda-could-help-china-dominate-global-markets/

china goes brrrrrrrrt