Even as the ink dried on the Paris climate accord in 2015, the world's biggest polluter was plotting to ramp up construction of hundreds of new coal-fired plants to meet the swelling energy demand of its 1.44 billion people. Despite its climate pledges to slice emissions, China's pollution has worsened.
Only six years ago, China joined 195 other countries, including the United Sates, in signing a binding treaty to tackle the issue of climate change. Under the agreement, each country pledged to significantly reduce harmful emissions. Naive American politicians trusted the Communists' promises.
Little has changed since that Paris agreement in 2015. China 's coal burning plants continue to belch carbon dioxide, thus retaining the title of world's largest emitter. The regime is responsible for 30% of all global emissions, according to ClimateTrade. China releases twice as much CO-2 as the U.S.
President Biden has an opportunity to confront China on its lack of progress at the upcoming Conference of the Parties--nations which ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1994. Expect China to make empty commitments it has no intention of fulfilling.
The Washington Post, virtually a publicity arm of the Democrat Party, ran a story ahead of the Glasgow, Scotland, confab, tempering expectations. With China's President Xi Jinping absent, the Post conjectures there will be no substantial guarantees from China on a plan to reduce emissions.
For once, the newspaper'a assumption is correct. China always acts in its self interests. To suggest the Communists will do an about face because of a ballyhooed conference, is incredulous. If President Biden takes a victory lap after the meeting, he has been duped by China just like previous leaders.
Judge China on its actions not its rhetoric. The independent research firm Rhodium Group released an analysis documenting that China's emissions have more than tripled over the past three decades. China's global emissions reached 52 giga tons of CO-2 in 2019, an 11.4% increase over the last ten years.
Yale Environment 360 analyzed China's climate ambitions and wrote that "air pollution returned in Beijing with a vengeance, hitting the highest levels this year since January 2019." Steel, cement and heavy manufacturing plants, running on coal power, boosted emissions by 4% by mid-2020.
In 2019, 58% of China's electricity was generated by coal, according to Yale's study. By comparison, the United States produces 23% of its electricity from coal. Last year alone, China built 184 coal-fired plants which will release more carbon dioxide gasses.
The San Francisco-based think tank Global Monitor and the independent Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air estimated China commissioned more than three times as much new coal power capacity as all the other countries in the world combined, despite repeated assertions to cut emissions.
America has dramatically reduced its dependence on coal by shuttering 392 coal burning facilities since 2002, a decrease of 38%. The country now operates 241 coal-fired plants and more are being off-lined nearly every year. Meanwhile, America creates 20% of its electricity from renewables.
China defenders--and there are many in Congress--point to the Communist Party's mandate that 40% of the vehicles sold in China must be electric by 2030. However, few economists believe the goal can be achieved. Still China apologists offer this mandate as proof the country is serious about climate change.
China's foremost champions are large U.S. corporations, including many with production, assembly or manufacturing facilitates operating in the Communist regime. The list includes firms such as Apple, Tesla, Boeing, Caterpillar, General Motors, Ford and Honeywell.
Scores of other firms, such as Nike, Starbucks, McDonald's and Pepsi, depend on the lucrative market for corporate revenue and profit growth. Wynn Resorts' revenues from casinos in Macau alone account for 75.2% of its income. China represents the most lucrative market for U.S. companies.
The reality is these firms cannot afford to offend China by demanding climate accountability.
The silence of American businesses is nothing short of hypocritical considering many of these same corporations are zealots for the progressive New Green Deal initiative in their own country. These corporate behemoths prefer to lecture Americans about saving the planet. Chinese, not so much.
In fact, these firms are guilty of fueling demand for more energy output in China by investing in the expansion of their operations in the Communist nation. Every new retail store, manufacturing or assembly plant, taxes China's already strained national grid, hiking incentives for more coal power.
Given American businesses' dependence on China for growth and profits, does any reader believe Mr. Biden will hold China's feet to the fire over it climate promises? Never happen. The U.N. goal of reaching "net zero" greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 is constructed on quicksand commitments.
That's why this latest climate summit will be a carbon copy of those held over the last two decades. Much fanfare, little results. Expect Mr. Biden to double down on reigning in U.S. emissions. But global CO-2 emissions will continue to spiral because China has no intention of honoring its pledges.
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