from the unspecified-time-in-the-future dept.
China to stop building coal plants in developing nations:
Chinese President Xi Jinping used his speech to the United Nations General Assembly to announce a major new step towards controlling global emissions. After reiterating his own country's climate pledges, Xi said that China would start making it easier for other countries to keep emissions in check: new support for renewable energy projects and an end to construction of coal plants.
[...] China had already committed to having its emissions peak at the end of this decade and to reach carbon neutrality by 2060. But until this point, its development banks were continuing to finance coal plants, and its companies would often construct them. In a recorded speech played at the UN today, however, Xi indicated that this would stop: "China will step up support for other developing countries in developing green and low-carbon energy and will not build new coal-fired power projects abroad."
That was the full extent of his words on the topic, however, so that leaves out plenty of details regarding the timing and extent of the halt. The most critical issue will be how far along projects will have to be before they're allowed to continue.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 22 2021, @12:04PM (1 child)
China, and earlier this year Korea and Japan,
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/sep/22/china-climate-no-new-coal-fired-power-projects-abroad-xi-jinping [theguardian.com]
A positive step and a big step. Now we need China to stop building coal plants in China, and we are slowly moving towards the correct track.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 22 2021, @12:08PM
and forgot to quote another section about timelines,
So if we just follow what someone DOES and not SAYS, then the policy has been in effect for a year already and the announcement is after the fact. But we'll see if this changes in the future or not.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 22 2021, @12:06PM
I promise not to Cum in your mouth.
That is pretty much what we have for a pledge here.
Countries abroad are already shuttering coal plants with or without China's promise.
What we really need is a cessation to coal plants EVERYWHERE, especially China's mainland.
"China had already committed to having its emissions peak at the end of this decade..."
And with this promise it will be too little too late.
By then the trigger points will all be well past the point of no return.
Hope the system has a good gage reflex.
(Score: 2) by looorg on Wednesday September 22 2021, @12:35PM (4 children)
But they'll still build them at home? Or is China going to start spreading/building Nuclear Powerplants across the globe? I wouldn't mind. Hard to find a better power source at the moment. Or is it some some fantasy about "green"-coal and gas plants? or are they just going to carpet the third world with windpower?
(Score: 3, Informative) by PinkyGigglebrain on Wednesday September 22 2021, @05:44PM
China has been putting a large amount of effort and money into the development of Liquid Fluoride Thorium Rectors lately. The LFTR tech is literally walk-away safe, can be put in places a traditional Light Water reactor can't.and Thorium is abundant, easily mined, and incredibly efficient as a fuel. Thorium is currently considered a waste product of Rare Earth metal mining/production with the average single RE mine digging out enough Thorium in a year to power the entire world for a year. China has a lot of it already mined so all they need to do now is build the LFTR power plants.
Other advantage of LFTRs is they can be used to retrofit coal plants, just replace the coal powered heat source with a LFTR, and is so impractical for use in weapons programs that proliferation wouldn't be a risk. So instead of coal power China will start exporting safe and clean Thorium fueled nuclear energy to the world which will give them a huge amount of influence in resource rich Africa and the Middle East.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday September 22 2021, @06:56PM
They're going to peak at the end of this decade, which sounds to me like they're going to ramp up high and hard until 2030, making it the next generation's problem to return to carbon neutrality 30 years hence. 9 years is a long time, a lot of the businessmen controlling policy will be dead by then, and even the younger ones can see their power growing to very satisfying levels by 2030 - at which time, if they're like the young businessmen I know, they think they'll just be able to tell the rest of the world to F off and they'll continue to do whatever they want.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 22 2021, @09:00PM (1 child)
This is why we in the west must accept that climate change is a reality and abandon this idea that we are going to somehow 'stop climate change'. Implementing policies that limit productivity or our economies to 'stop climate change' will just put China in the driver's seat even more than they are now. You can be sure that China is not going to limit its own economic growth in any significant way, but they will definitely encourage the west to do so. Instead we should be putting policies in place that help people and our economies adopt to the reality that is climate change now and into the future. There is no stopping it. It's already too late. The sooner we face that reality the better. Otherwise we will just end up in a weakened position while China makes all of the real decisions.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Wednesday September 22 2021, @09:29PM
Group suicide by competitive spirit: the non-thinking peoples' way to go.
🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 22 2021, @01:26PM (2 children)
Particulate matter from coal-fired power plants serves an important purpose in reflecting the sun's rays. It's no coincidence that the world's been heating up at an accelerating rate since they started clamping down on coal a couple of decades ago. Unless we find a replacement sunshield it's quite possible that the world will continue to heat up and we can only blame it on mankind for shutting down too many coal-fired plants.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Opportunist on Wednesday September 22 2021, @02:04PM (1 child)
It's the lack of pirates.
Proof: In the 1600s, the high time of pirates, there was virtually no AGW. Today, there is almost no pirates and AGW is at an all time high.
Also, the highest amount of pirates is around Somalia. Take a closer look at the carbon footprint of countries and you will notice something.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 22 2021, @05:52PM
Also note the "Napster plateau" in global temperatures in the early 2000s