by The Japan Times, December 2, 2019

WASHINGTON – As world leaders gather in Spain to discuss how to slow the warming of the planet, a spotlight falls on China — the top emitter of greenhouse gases.

China burns about half the coal used globally each year. Between 2000 and 2018, its annual carbon emissions nearly tripled, and it now accounts for about 30 percent of the world’s total. Yet it’s also the leading market for solar panels, wind turbines and electric vehicles, and it manufactures about two-thirds of solar cells installed worldwide.

“We are witnessing many contradictions in China’s energy development,” said Kevin Tu, a Beijing-based fellow with the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University. “It’s the largest coal market and the largest clean energy market in the world.”

That apparent paradox is possible because of the sheer scale of China’s energy demands.

But as China’s economy slows to the lowest level in a quarter century — around 6 percent growth, according to government statistics — policymakers are doubling down on support for coal and other heavy industries, the traditional backbones of China’s energy system and economy. At the same time, the country is reducing subsidies for renewable energy.

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• Taro Yamamoto blurs the popular line on climate change
• ‘Coal Japan’ threatens to displace ‘Cool Japan’ as U.N. climate conference set to kick off in Madrid
• At Madrid meet, U.N. chief warns of ‘point of no return’ on climate change
• John Kerry launches U.S. bipartisan group addressing climate change ‘like a war’
• Zero-hour on climate, but U.N. talks are in another time zone
• Since 1992 Rio U.N. meet, world has gotten 1 degree hotter, carbon dioxide levels in air have jumped 15%
• Poor nations pay price as millions flee ‘climate chaos,’ anti-poverty charity Oxfam says.

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