Submitted by lughnasadh t3_zp5tn5 in Futurology
Reply to comment by BucksFan654 in The IEA says humanity used the greatest amount of coal in 2022 in all of human history, and that this level of consumption will continue until at least 2025. One-third of all global coal goes to generate electricity in China, and India's coal use is growing at 6% per annum. by lughnasadh
>>They do not care.
That doesn't seem a correct way to characterize the situation.
China gets almost 45% of electricity from renewables, which is double what the EU or US does.
Furthermore, not only are they building all their own solar capacity, they are building most of the rest of the world's too, and account for 80% of global production.
Looked at that way, it might be fairer to say its Europe and America that "doesn't care".
You have to include nuclear as well, to look at all low-carbon sources.
China is climbing, but hasn't matched the US yet, much less Europe.
Also interesting:
That's the installed capacity, renewables never deliver the full capacity. The actual energy delivered by renewables is closer to 28%.
Electricity isn’t used to create steel, glass and cement. In the 5 years after the 2008 financial crisis, China used more cement than the US has used in all of history.
Much of this construction was directed toward speculative properties that will never be lived in.
China doesn’t give a fuck.
It's more how it's run. So local communist party leaders bid for large projects to a government that needs to spend money or face the massive amount of debt piling up. They get these. Which pushes them higher up in the politics. Also gets them and all their friends a bunch of bribe money. It was also to get all the farmers and country folk to leave the countryside. Which happened. But not as much as they hoped.
Yep..all fake buildings like the ones demolished when evergrande went bankrupt
Not fake buildings, the buildings are mostly real houses, it's just a colossal real estate bubble, possibly the largest in history. Due to the volatility of the Chinese stock market, real estate is seen as the most common personal investment, as it is less likely to lose its value by crossing the Party. (Empty houses are really good at not pissing people off.)
Don't believe China's numbers.
Anyhow, electricity isn't the only thing that needs energy.
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