Have China’s Carbon Emissions Finally Peaked?
China’s huge deployment of renewables, combined with its push to electrify transport and industry, will bring some good climate news for the planet, according to analyst Lauri Myllyvirta on the Zero podcast this week.
A floating solar farm of Sungrow Power Supply Co., built on the site of a former coal mine, since filled with water, in Huainan, China in May 2023.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/BloombergWhen will China’s emissions peak? The timing could make a big difference to the fate of the planet. And now Lauri Myllyvirta, co-founder of the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, thinks that moment may have arrived. A combination of factors — including a huge deployment of renewables and electrification of transport — has put China’s emissions into a structural decline.
This week on Zero, Akshat Rathi asks Myllyvirta how confident he is that this really is a peak. What’s behind the decline in emissions? And how will the trade war with the US affect China’s climate and energy policies in the years to come?