China approves two new coal plants every week to ensure stability “when renewables fail”

By Jo Nova

It’s the sixth mass extinction of life on Earth and one country is building six times as much new coal power as the rest of the world combined. But no one cares.

Sinful Australia hasn’t even built a coal plant in 12 long years, but Saint China is approving a new one every three and a half days. One nation is theoretically destroying the world’s corals, creating droughts, floods and bad storms, and making reef fish reckless but no one is gluing themselves to the Chinese Embassy. The same universities who lecture us on carbon pollution are not even boycotting Chinese students. We have to ask — do reef fish matter? Are floods a bad thing?

Either CO2 is just a shiny amulet or everyone who cares about it is functionally innumerate. It could be both.

Meanwhile on the cat-walks of intellectual fashion shows the Western world’s elite competes to be more concerned than the next guy about the dire problems of CO2. President Xi cheers them on, promises to act, then builds another coal plant.

Constructing 106 Gigawatts of coal power in 2023 doesn’t exactly sit well with President Xi’s pledge that China would start to reduce coal consumption by 2030 “at the latest”.

UPDATE: The pledge was to phase coal down between 2026 – 2030

China aims to peak CO2 emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060

China has stated in the updated NDC that it will stringently curb coal-powered projects, set strict limits on the increase in coal consumption during 2021-2025 and to phase it down during 2026-2030.

A “peak” before 2030 means a permanent reduction. If you were planning a permanent reduction from Dec 2029, would you be building 100 coal plants a year, just seven years before then, or would you be lying…

But a tactic of pretending to be Green whilst doing the exact opposite —  as your adversaries wreck their own industrial bases — would make you a bad citizen, but a good strategist, if you can get away with it. Remember the research group that says pro-China groups are posing as fake green protestors to try to stop rare earth mines in the US.

In a sense, they’d be crazy if they weren’t.

China ramps up coal plant approvals despite emissions pledge: report

by Poornima Weerasekara, Phys Org

China last year approved the largest expansion of coal-fired power plants since 2015, according to a study published Monday, despite its vow to begin phasing down use of the fossil fuel in just three years.

The coal power capacity that China began building in 2022 was six times as much as that in the rest of the world combined, the report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) in Finland and the Global Energy Monitor (GEM) added.

China needs these coal plants for “when renewables fail”

Local officials say new coal plants will serve as a backup to ensure stable supplies when renewables fail.

So the West is demolishing coal plants, and hoping to use batteries and pumped hydro for back up power, but China is using coal, and if it accidentally finds out that coal is cheaper than coal-plus-wind they can just keep running the back up plants can’t they, while someone slowly restores the trailing edge on the wind blades. The slower the better.

It’s one of those rare times when the more maintenance you do, the cheaper it gets.

Green paint for Chairman Mao

Green paint for Chairman Mao. …by Daderot

Another coal fired boom started in China last year:

“The speed at which projects progressed through permitting to construction in 2022 was extraordinary.”

A total of 106 GW of new coal power projects were approved in 2022—the equivalent of two large coal plants per week—it said.

Plants accounting for around a third of that capacity have already begun construction, with some gaining permits, securing financing and breaking ground “within a matter of months”.

Only $1.5b in subsidies?

The rush for approvals started after China’s cabinet in May announced 10 billion yuan ($1.5 billion) of investment in coal power generation.

“This is the same dynamic that we saw during the previous boom in 2015,” Lauri Myllyvirta, Lead Analyst at CREA, told AFP.

“No one knows how long the floodgates will stay open, so  try to rush as many projects through as they can.”

There are no calls here for carbon tariffs on Chinese goods made with coal power. No boycott and divestment program. No protestors lying on the road in front of the Chinese Ambassador. No threats from BlackRock to raise the interest rates of China if they don’t comply.

It’s almost like the news stories and protest groups were approved by President Xi?

REFERENCE

China permits two new coal power plants per week in 2022, CREA

h/t Graeme

9.8 out of 10 based on 88 ratings

101 comments to China approves two new coal plants every week to ensure stability “when renewables fail”

  • #

    Well done the Chinese for being smarter than the Woke West. Australian Federal Guv’ment, please take note as we have lots of coal here which is happily being exported to places like China. No problem there from our Federal and State Guv’ments.

    What a crazy World we now live in.

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    • #
      David-of-Cooyal-in-Oz

      Prior to WW II Australia exported pig iron to Japan
      Now we’re exporting coal to China.
      Is history doing its normal thing and repeating itself?

      280

    • #
      Leo G

      What a crazy World we now live in.

      Could it be that the renewables industry has created a carbon emissions monster in China such that global anthropogenic carbon dioxide output is now greater than it would have been without the renewables industry?

      130

    • #
      Don B

      It is not just China increasing coal consumption. Global coal consumption was a new record in 2022, and will be a higher record in 2023.

      “Doomberg” wrote a great article, “The Streisand Effect,” detailing the idea that woke Westerners banning coal led to the recent and ongoing energy crisis, which led to more countries increasing coal consumption to keep the lights on.

      https://doomberg.substack.com/p/the-streisand-effect

      200

  • #

    “…when renewables fail…”
    When they fail, you “renew” them, btw., how & why should they fail, aren’t they the best and only way to save the world ? 😀
    Ah, they are effective and save… 😀
    (wrong cinema…):D

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  • #

    China has also been helping various African nations to develop their Coal power plants with funding and technical support for years now.

    How China Is Conquering Africa One Coal Plant At A Time

    LINK

    ===

    In the link also shows several European countries helping Asian nations build coal plants all backed by internal sources.

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  • #
    Terry Dactil

    The Chinese are smart. They are taking advantage of our own stupidity by selling us lots of solar panels and wind turbines to help us to commit energy suicide.

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    • #
      Bozotheclown

      Sneaky smart. If you want to dominate the world you’d have to be sneaky and deeply connected in, say, Democrat politics?

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  • #
    farmerbraun

    “doesn’t exactly sit well with President Xi’s pledge that China would start to reduce coal consumption by 2030 “at the latest”.

    Where’s the conflict?
    He didn’t say the reduction would be continuing let alone permanent.
    One train load less in 2030, and he can claim to have started.

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    • #
      Sean Wise

      I think what China committed to was they were going to reduce their carbon emissions per unit of GDP. The way to interpret that is they are going to be making more value added, high margin products. So, rather than just export the steel or few components for your next car, the entire car will be made in China and exported. China is the dominant manufacturer of EV’s and the only country manufacturing mass market vehicles. The bulk of EV’s purchased in Europe, Australia and other countries will likely come from China which, by selling a finished good, will increase China’s GDP much more than its emissions.

      142

      • #

        No. Read the Chinese commitment:

        China aims to peak CO2 emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060

        China has stated in the updated NDC that it will stringently curb coal-powered projects, set strict limits on the increase in coal consumption during 2021-2025 and to phase it down during 2026-2030.

        A “peak” before 2030 means a permanent reduction. If you were planning a permanent reduction from Dec 2029, would you be building 100 coal plants a year, just seven years before then, or would you be lying…

        Good question though. Added to the post as an update.

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        • #
          Sean Wise

          My response is, believe what China does, not what China says. China is building huge amounts of coal capacity. They are building a lot of renewable capacity. They are buying more and more natural gas (and reselling for profit if its LNG.) It’s not clear to me if they are in the “electrify everything” mode or expect their industries to be the beneficiary of poor European energy policies. Probably a little of both.

          20

      • #
        Ted1.

        They used to say: “You can’t deal with the Chinese. They are inscrutable’.

        i.e. they will say one thing and do the opposite.

        I have always believed that the first rule in economics – that every operator acts in his own best interests – applies just as much in China as anywhere else. The difference is in the perception of best interests. And one of the biggest factors is short term v long term.

        I don’t expect any coal fired station constructed recently or in the future to close before 2060. Unless there is no need for it. e.g. the world may have become fully supplied with manufactured goods, including new steel and concrete.

        That could happen suddenly if there was a catastrophic reduction in the world’s population. Which appears to be in some people’s plans.

        20

    • #
      James Murphy

      CCP statistics made available to the rest of the world are exactly what they need to be. There’s no need to sully such figures with anything resembling real data.
      I don’t doubt that they are approving new coal fired plants at a fast rate, because even the CCP sees how useful cheap electricity can be, as actual electricity and as a means to show impoverished and energy poor citizens how much the Party cares for them. I’d say it’s a definite vote winner, but…well…

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      • #
        Simon Thompson ᵐᵇ ᵇˢ

        James, my Chinese postmaster grinned and told me “In China we have elections too- but there is only one party to vote for”.

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        • #
          Honk R Smith

          As a practical matter, same is true in my Democrat controlled US state.
          I am registered D, just to have a chance to vote for the least crazy candidate.
          A standard that is lately moot.

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          • #
            David Maddison

            just to have a chance to vote for the least crazy candidate.

            Thst describes voting in Australia as well.

            60

            • #
              b.nice

              And yet we seem to end up with the LOONIEST/CRAZIEST in charge !

              eg Albo, Bowen, Turnbull, Kean.. etc.

              100

              • #
                Old Goat

                Nice,
                No matter who you vote for you still get a politician . Trouble is most of them belong in jail or a mental institution . The rest are cynical opportunists.

                10

    • #
      yarpos

      Doesnt talk at all about what is decommissioned at the back end. Are these all new incrementals or replacement of aged plants or most likely a mix.

      60

    • #
      BrianTheEngineer

      He is reducing coal consumption if you think about it. He didn’t specify where

      30

  • #
    Zigmaster

    Andrew’s has followed China on the Belt and Roads inititiative and the response to the lockdown to earn the title Dictator Dan, yet on energy he listens to a higher power, The Greens. And the stupid public still vote him .The Liberals don’t help by giving voters little choice by driving the thinking voters to minor parties who can’t get enough power to have any influence.
    People including many of my close family and friends are really really dumb when it comes to politics.

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    • #
      el+gordo

      The Federal government intervened and stopped the Belt and Road Initiative in Australia.

      50

    • #
      Skepticynic

      yet on energy he listens to a higher power, The Greens

      Both Dan and the watermelon Greens are listening to the higher power telling them don’t do what I do, do as I say.
      The higher power wants cheap reliable electricity for itself but for us, we are only allowed pathetic energy and unreliable energy. Their need for more and more energy is rapacious. You can’t build a war machine and dominate global manufacturing on weak intermittent and expensive power. And it’s much easier to take over a country when it’s on it’s knees with no energy for manufacturing, transport, and agriculture. Best leave all the valuable resources in the ground for the benefit of the new overlords.

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  • #
    David Maddison

    According to Australia’s (SNIPPED)-for-brains politicians, subsidy harvesters, the Left, senior public serpents and the Lamestream media it’s OK for a mostly-developed country like China to be the world’s largest CO2 emitter.

    Chinese inexpensive and reliable energy = GOOD.

    Australian inexpensive and reliable energy = BAD.

    (/sarc)

    This is so wicked it’s beyond ignorance and incompetence. It’s part of a plan to destroy the West.

    The Chinese laugh at our stupidity, self-hatred and tolerance of traitors.

    But they are also very pleased. And especially with our far Left, Chi-comm Loyalist politicians like Comrade Dictator Dan of Vicdanistan and Senator Penelope Ying-Yen Wong.

    (EDITED by CTS)

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    • #
      Lawrie

      I have been convinced for the past decade that the vendetta against CO2 has been instituted to destroy the West’s ability to resist communism generally and China in particular. It is only the dumb and politicians (much the same) who believe CO2 is a problem. The energy ministers and premiers in Australia are all socialists and doing everything possible to ruin our energy system and our ability to be self sufficient. They are either clueless or, as you say, traitorous.

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    • #
      David Maddison

      I don’t know why that was snipped. I used the correct medical term, not the common vulgar term.

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    • #
      Mike Jonas

      Credit where credit is due. Having disliked Penny Wong intensely when she was in opposition, I now have to admit that she has performed strongly in Australia’s interests since being in government. In my view, she is an excellent foreign minister (never ever thought that one day I could say that). Sure, she supports Labor’s ‘climate change’ policies, and of course as a cabinet member she has to, but she doesn’t seem to push them any further than is useful for international diplomacy. She does seem to stand up to China effectively. IMHO others in the Labor party are much more deserving of criticism than Penny Wong.

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      • #
        Graeme No.3

        Mike Jonas:
        I thoroughly agree that there are members of the Labor party much more deserving of criticism, and quite a lot of members of the Liberal party as well.

        And as for bright lights there are reports of aurora light displays in the UK as far south as Cornwell, not caused by politicians or global warming.

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      • #
        Forrest Gardener

        Mike, you forgot the tag at the end.

        61

  • #
    Dave of Gold Coast, Qld.

    Sometimes I just sit back and shake my head at the stupidity of the west.
    Australia in particular as we have huge resources of pretty much everything. We cannot have new coal technology, can’t have new method nuclear either but we mostly believe as a country in “renewables’, The city dwellers who have no concept of environmental damage go on and on with their propaganda for the naive herd, pitiful really. Would love to take some of the smug EV drivers to where the minerals are sourced and give them a wake up. Previous articles on Lithium supplies should frighten us, it may be a case of killing the planet to save it from the life giving gas CO2

    380

  • #
    David Maddison

    China is not worried about warming (which is always good) but global cooling which is always bad and what we seem to be heading toward.

    Of course, the hypothesis that CO2 is responsible for global warming is wrong anyway, the Sun is a variable star and is totally ignored by climate catastrophists as is the solar system’s passage through areas of the galaxy with stronger or weaker cosmic ray flux, which influences cloud formation. (Warmists seem to be staticists, i.e. don’t believe the earth ever changes).

    The linked graph below demonstrates just how bad cooling is for China from a historical perspective.

    Chinese civilisation is particularly sensitive to natural cooling.

    While they are profiting handsomely from supposed global warming through seeing increased manufacturing costs for the West and profiting from solar panel sales to naive Westerners, they know we are heading toward global cooling and they know that has severe consequences for them. Hence the main reason they are buying agricultural land all over the world and colonizing warm and sunny, and resource rich Africa.

    A graph of political catastrophes vs precipitation and temperatures in China can be seen at:

    https://c3headlines.typepad.com/.a/6a010536b58035970c01b8d0f76684970c-pi

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  • #
    A happy little debunker

    Slightly OT…
    Greta ‘how dare you’ Thunberg is currently campaigning against renewable energy in Norway as an unacceptable violation of ‘indigenous’ Human Rights.
    https://www.euronews.com/green/2023/02/27/greta-thunberg-says-norways-wind-farms-are-an-unacceptable-violation-of-human-rights

    It is all very reminiscent of Bob Browns objections to renewables on Tasmania’s Robbins Island.
    https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-07-25/bob-browns-opposition-to-wind-farm-labelled-hypocrisy/11345200

    ‘Climate Justice’ seems a very malleable concept.

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    • #
      David Maddison

      Greta’s Viking ancestors would be appalled at her, especially Erik the Red who settled in Greenland during a period of natural global warming.

      230

  • #
    John Hultquist

    The plan in China is to build based on what they project the need to be in 2030. As better facilities come on-line the lesser ones can be retired. By 2030 facilities will be in-place for the next 50 years. {John Kerry will have checked out long before.} Updates and improvements in the facilities and in the downstream uses (heating, cooling, and such) will allow for reduced coal consumption “at the latest”.
    The Climate™ won’t care.

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  • #
    Mark Kaiser

    Constructing 106 Gigawatts of coal power in 2023 doesn’t exactly sit well with President Xi’s pledge that China would start to reduce coal consumption by 2030 “at the latest”.

    I’m going to mildly disagree with you on this Jo.

    Let’s say China thinks they need 300 new coal plants by 2030. They build 800 while still in the “developing country” stage.

    When it comes to reducing emissions, they have 500 they can cut loose at their leisure.

    At least that’s how I would do it.

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  • #
    another ian

    Re that “global warming”

    Willis E has a look

    “Non-Global Warming”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/02/27/non-global-warming/

    And concludes “Short conclusion, to match the short post. The warming may be many things, but it’s not global …”

    90

  • #
    another ian

    Meanwhile, in once great Britain

    “British Net Zero Insanity is the Cause of Winter Food Shortages”

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/02/27/british-net-zero-insanity-is-the-cause-of-winter-food-shortages/

    100

  • #
    Geoffrey Williams

    The Chinese government doesnt have to answer to bunch of green leftist climate activists . .

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    • #
      Ross

      Nor face any protests regarding wind /solar plant installs!! No lengthy approval delays by local governments either.

      80

  • #
    Neville

    China, India and other developing countries’ co2 emissions have soared since Dr Hansen’s moronic Washington DC speech in 1988 and we still have a long way to go.
    India and the other developing countries will be trying to catch up to China ASAP and this will ensure our OECD countries’ rush to serfdom will be an ongoing and very dangerous disaster.
    Good luck trying to fight China, Russia, Iran etc with the latest electric tanks, fighter jets etc in the coming decades.
    And never forget there is no Climate crisis or emergency or so called EXISTENTIAL THREAT to Humans at all.
    We can easily look up the DATA in a few minutes for ourselves, so why do so many govts and their treasonous billion $ think tanks (???) refuse to understand?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_carbon_dioxide_emissions#/media/File:World_fossil_carbon_dioxide_emissions_six_top_countries_and_confederations.png

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  • #
    David Maddison

    People forget that China has a vast PR and influencer network. Some are obvious China sycophants like Dan Andrews, others are less visible. And they are highly active on social media as well, and are also likely responsible for many down votes on pages such as this. And on top of All that, you have the useful idiots as well.

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  • #
    Neville

    Everyone should look at the GDP per capita graph 1820 to 2018 from OWI Data and THINK.
    Since 1820 the USA, Western Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand have benefited from our use of FOSSIL FUELS.
    But how many kids at school really understand the REAL world data and our prosperous journey over the last 200 or 100 or 50 years?

    https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gdp-per-capita-maddison-2020

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  • #
    TdeF

    Who benefits from our public obsession with ‘carbon’? Carbon really is front page news every day in the Australian. The new Labor government is obsessed with fighting it, as were Turnbull’s Greens. No one even bothers to say why. The Reef is fine, the polar bears are in record numbers and the world temperatures are dropping rapidly. It is snowing in LA.

    And where do the hundreds of billions go? Chinese solar panels and windmills. What a racket!

    But is carbon so bad. No one outside the EU and Australia/NZ/Democrats think so. Which is fine because there really never was a problem with highly soluble life giving CO2. CO2 also has a massive continuous exchange with the vast oceans which cover most of this planet. It is a gas we didn’t make and the basis of all life on earth. And of course the crippling of Western Democratic countries is both useful and extremely profitable. Like the war in Ukraine against the only enemy, Russia.

    So it’s interesting that China says generating more CO2 than all other countries combined is just an energy reliability issue. Ha!

    Their old excuse was that they were historic Carbon victims. Outrageous. A third world nuclear missile country with the world’s largest army and airforce. And still not a single newspaper or media outlet questions their victim status as a third world country exempt from carbon obligations. It’s all up to Anthony Albanese to save the world by punishing Australia.

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    • #
      Simon Thompson ᵐᵇ ᵇˢ

      Who benefits from our public obsession with ‘carbon’?

      The 0.0001% elite financial class who instigated loans at interest and are behind every war (usually funding both sides). They are encouraging the neutering and deindustrialisation of the west with “DIE” policies through decisions from boards largely controlled by BlackRock/Vanguard/State street.

      These TRILLIONAIRES are like cockroaches- they are usually hiding their presence if possible. The vast fortunes owned by these families are not idle- they are “Invested”. It turns out that rather than let society progress peacefully they create havoc- destroying reliable energy, perverting food production to wheat, sugar and toxic plant seed oils, destroying the family unit at every turn resulting in less than replacement birth rate then combine this with very poorly assimilated migrants who hopefully never figure out what the games is. The plandemic kicked this along nicely- not one person in a thousand can get their head around what a coordinated scam this was. From bioengineering viruses, to suppressing the easily survivable whimpy virus they pretended was Ebola 2.0 to the countermeasure “Vaccines” that were neither a Vaccine, nor safe nor effective. All on borrowed money- borrowed from Whom? Don’t ask- you will be done for racial vilification!

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      • #
        Lucky

        But I do ask-
        Who is all the borrowed money borrowed from?

        20

        • #
          Old Goat

          Lucky,
          Good question . China is “lending” money to many countries and yet its running budget deficits – who is lending it money ? International finance is an enormous ponzi scheme . The US froze 300 billion dollars of Russian money and now they can’t find it . Anyone care to bet that China is dumping dollars now ?
          Weapons grade shenanigans .

          10

  • #
    ExWarmist

    We should thank the Chinese for demonstrating common sense and leadership in the energy sector.

    (There are other areas where thanks are not warranted…)

    The ‘Biosphere,’ thanks them for the extra CO2 enrichment of the atmosphere, every spare molecule of plant food will be needed when the next glacial hits.

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  • #
    el+gordo

    We’ll have to wait awhile before our national broadcaster (the Australian brainwashing corporation) tells us this story. We obviously pay them to keep us in the dark.

    The Washington Post and South China Morning Post have it up, even Carbon Brief mentioned it, so the Oz will probably be the first out of the box.

    60

  • #
    Serge Wright

    And not one lefty protester outside the Chinese embassy in Canberra ????
    Obviously that would change if China became a democracy.

    50

  • #
    Ross

    We’ve known this for a long time. Usually to hide the fact, there is an article published showing how China is ramping up all the possible solar/wind energy resources. Which they are. In fact, in total $ (or yuan) their spend on wind and solar probably eclipses all other nations. But it’s just window dressing and then allows them to supply solar/ wind technology to other countries. The ironical thing is usually when this subject is raised, some witless Green politician then repeats that point regarding China’s big solar/wind spend.

    60

    • #
      TdeF

      For the Chinese who mine far more coal than we do. Have massive deserts for solar. The world’s highest mountains for hydro and nuclear, the wind and solar are a why not rather than a replacement for coal? They buy them very cheaply too. It’s nothing to do with reducing CO2. And they have salaried apologists across the planet who use this as an excuse.

      Their energy output is mainly coal.

      And their coal mining is huge in millions of tons per year with only 10% imported
      2018 3,550 tons 295 imported 3,845 total

      And while Australians are pilloried by our home grown Greens for having the highest per capita output of CO2, a riduculous metric, the Chinese with 1.4Billion people, less than 1/5th of 8 billion generate 56% of all CO2. Clearly they have more CO2 per ton than every country in the world excluding little places like Australia with fewer people than Shanghai.

      But we are the villains with our 2% and to atone for our carbon sins, we will buy carbon credits from China, shut down our manufacturing, mining and agriculture and electricity production to save the Chinese from Global Warming? Why does everyone in Australian politics agree with that? (Except Matt Canavan)

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      • #
        Ross

        Canavan is interesting isn’t he? I follow him on social media and ever since he’s been in opposition he has become ULTRA vocal on Australia’a energy policy. (mostly re. coal). When in government he was somewhat vocal on the issue but obviously only up to a point that meant he wasn’t kicked out of the LNP. Unlike poor old Craig Kelly. At one stage he even issued a social media showing support for Turnbull.

        61

      • #
        Kalm Keith

        “salaried apologists “;
        they’re everywhere in all levels of what’s left of once great Australia.

        I hear them practicing the skill of obfuscation on the radio as I carefully negotiate the potholes that could not be dealt with because they were saving up for the next Smart Cittys conferences in New York.

        On a national level they’re heard beating up the head of the federal reserve who just put up interest rates again to cover their appalling borrowing.

        What incentive would any young person have to study, work and contribute to such a gross ugly enslaving system.

        60

  • #
    Neville

    According to Bill McKibben and Dr Hansen their Climate Crisis etc will be mitigated if we reduce global co2 emissions to the 1988 level of about 350 ppm.
    So if we reduce our global 419 ppm ( Jan 2023) by 69 ppm we should be safe AGAIN?
    Has anyone told China, India and other developing countries about Bill’s quest for co2 reduction? I’m sure it would give them a good belly laugh.
    Just look at the OWI Data co2 emissions graph that Jo linked to at the top of this post.
    BTW I’d love to see Bill McKibben protesting in China over their SOARING co2 emissions. Come on Bill what’s stopping you?

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  • #
    TdeF

    After years of commenting on fake man made CO2 and fake CO2 warming, I have to observe that no one in the press even mentions these two things.

    No one writes it is not warming. No one says that CO2 and warming are obviously disconnected. There are no dramatic articles about the fate of the polar bears/chipmunks/caribou/fish/barrier reef. There is just silence.

    And every second article is about ‘reducing carbon’. But no one explains why we should.

    The collective attack on Western society is that there is nothing to deny. Nothing to question. Carbon, the sixth element of the Periodic table, is evil industrial pollution.

    And the financiers, banks, fund managers, merchant banks, governments, councils and even the oil and gas companies and manufacturers and energy retailers all have the same story, the fight against Carbon.

    Why? There’s nothing wrong.

    All hail Nett Zero, the new cult. The new path to Carbon riches. Now where can I buy cheap land and grow a forest and get free cash?

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  • #
    Pauly B

    “I for one welcome our new unwoke Asian overlords…”

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  • #

    What might satellite images show,
    In the future, of lights on below?
    When renewables fail,
    O’er the West a dark veil,
    And from China, a bright shining glow.

    100

  • #
  • #
    TdeF

    With Nett Zero, there is a new battle, emissions.

    If you look at the original villain, CO2 vs time you can see no impact whatever of human activity. No bushfires, no evidence of the world wide shutdown of 2021. All you see are the seasonal ripples as the ocean surface heats and cools, which is a clue.

    That is what you expect for a planet covered in deep water stuffed with 98% of all natural CO2. Nothing to do with plants or human activity. It is a very common gas. 2% of all free gas and so soluble is it mainly dissolved in the oceans.

    The world focus is now measuring and reducing (human) emissions, without any substantial connection between emissions and total CO2.

    And this is is the core of Nett Zero. Basically no fossil fuels. And no agriculture or manufacturing or transport.

    Since 1988 we have had three frauds pretending to be science

    1 a man made increase in CO2
    2 CO2 warming
    3 warming is lethal

    but the latest and perhaps silliest doest not even a pretend a scientific basis

    4 CO2 no longer matters (and it’s still going up thanks mainly to China if you agree with the story).

    What matters now are fossil fuel emissions. Again only in Democratic countries.

    How will eliminating fossil fuels help the planet? No one knows because it will not affect total CO2 but that is not the point.
    The battle has started and like all wars we are going to win even if we have to wreck everything. It’s the only way to save what we have.

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      Simon Thompson ᵐᵇ ᵇˢ

      Those pesky Russians with the Abiogenic oil theory.
      Sure coal is derived from plant matter.
      Is Oil really Dinosaur Juice?
      If hydrocarbons are found on planets and moons that never sustained life as we know it, does it
      not then follow that Earth could be generating Oil as a function of what is happening down below-
      we have only ventured 12 Km deep into a 6400Km mystery!

      So the whole “Fossil fuel” is a slogan but not necessarily a truth!

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    Rupert Ashford

    They need the affordable, reliable coal fired power to sustain their industries building our renewable energy sources (solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, EVs). And people keep telling me Westerners are intelligent…maybe we deserve the oncoming crash, but our poor children.

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    Damon

    “There’s nothing wrong”
    That’s what’s astonishing. All the hysterical tales of cyclones, sea level rises etc, have been repeatedly shown to be false, yet are rehashed in the media time and time again, without question.

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    Back when I started doing all this, I tentatively wrote my Posts from the background of ….. “I’m still looking at all of this.” The more I looked the more I found, the more there was to write about. That Series I started, well I thought it would tap out after (in my wildest hopeful dreams) ten Posts, but it just snowballed, and when I finally did wind it up after more than 50 Posts, and thinking, well, that’s it for me, it proved to be just the start.

    Early on in that original Series, I found that China was constructing coal fired plants like there was no tomorrow, and in fact they were commissioning them (beginning operational power delivery) at the rate of one every seven days, and would be doing that well into the future.

    At the same time I was writing my own Posts, I was also commenting at any site I could find, and here, nearly all of them were based in the U.S. as there were very few sites to comment at here in Australia. At that time, (2008) the ABC were just beginning to ramp up their own news site, and they had a news Forum site that was pretty huge, considering it was still only 2008, and that was one site where I did add comments quite regularly, and in those days, they were reasonably well accepted. That Forum wound back after a couple of years and then just disappeared. However, when I added that China was opening one new coal fired power plant a week, and would do so well into the future, at nearly every site I mentioned it, I was scoffed at, and told that it would never happen, and in fact was not even happening at the time I wrote about it.

    Even then, these new Chinese plants were UltraSuperCritical technology, (now referred to as HELE) way higher tech than every plant already existing in ‘our’ already Developed World.

    People did not want to believe that China was doing this, and that they had the latest and best tech, and that they were significantly lower emitting plants than any existing plants we were operating. No one believed me then, and here we are now.

    Here’s just one of those earlier Posts of mine, if you do want to read it:

    Kyoto – A Perspective (Part 19)

    After you’ve finished, scroll back to the top, and note the date I wrote it, May of 2008 ….. fifteen years ago.

    Life is a Minestrone!

    Tony.

    PostScript – Oh, and that newer technology, USC, and now the next level of tech Advanced USC, well the Chinese have also found a way to retrofit older plants with the USC technology, and are in fact doing that. Those ancient old clunkers are closing down, all those tiny plants of 2MW to 10MW, and the middling ones up to 50MW and 100MW. But any of those older (medium term, so 20 to 30 years old) plants in the range of 300MW and higher, those are the ones that are being retrofitted with that newer technology, and that program is advancing at the same rate as new plant construction. And here, keep in mind that these new coal fired plants have a projected lifespan of 40 to 50 years, so operational till at least 2075 for plants opening this year.

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      Neville

      Tony you’ve forgotten more about energy than I’ll ever know, so can you tell me how long Labor’s coastline wind generators will last?
      They’re supposed to start offshore from Gippsland and gradually move north along the East coast of Australia.
      I’ve been told that the useful life of these TOXIC disasters could be about 15 years.
      So Tony what length of time would you estimate and what would be the replacement costa?.

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    Neville

    AGAIN why are the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand so wealthy today?
    And Western Europe are also very wealthy , but apparently we all want to wreck our countries’ futures by BELIEVING in their delusional CC BS and FRAUD.
    The increase in WEALTH and HEALTH since 1950 is amazing although we’ve also had an enormous increase in population as well.
    So can anyone tell us why we should change to their TOXIC S & W lunacy?

    https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/gdp-per-capita-maddison-2020

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      David Maddison

      so wealthy today?

      Of course, massive wealth has already been lost, and it is being thrown away at an increasingly rapid rate. The West will soon lose its wealth superiority, as planned by the Left. It was Obama that mostly initiated it when he decided to “bring America down a notch (or ten)”.

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      Kalm Keith

      We were wealthy until recently and that wealth was built on rational, informed progress that involved personal contributions of honesty, hard work, good education, and so on.

      People could see that they were building something for themselves and children but it’s hit the fan recently and the themes of graft, corruption, self indulgence of many levels of public service, political indifference to the plight of the plebs and outrageous government borrowing to sustain the illusion of the “wealthy country”, these are all climaxing.

      At the main interfaces, the troops are under pressure.

      Police, teachers and workers in social security offices are not in a sustainable situation and it looks bad.

      We need a total clean out of the rot in the system and it’s needed right now.

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    Neville

    Paul Driessen lists more of the vile, infantile nonsense that our barking mad leaders and bureaucrats BELIEVE.
    Of course China, Russia etc would never allow these loonies the time of day and they’d be quickly locked up until they woke up to themselves.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2023/02/26/childish-beliefs-drive-lethal-energy-and-agricultural-agendas/

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    Peter Fitzroy

    Thank goodness we don’t have consider population, if that was the case, China has a long way to go to catch up with little old Australia

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      Or percentage of the economy dependent on heavy industry.

      Or distances per capita.

      Or immigration rates.

      Or deforestation per capita.

      Australian per capita reductions in CO2 are probably some of the largest in the world.

      Clearly CO2 emissions don’t matter at all to you Peter.

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        Grogery

        Clearly CO2 emissions don’t matter at all to you Peter.

        Or CO2 “omissions”.

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        Peter Fitzroy

        So the picture is more nuanced than the bald facts published in the original post.

        percentage of the economy dependent on heavy industry

        distances per capita. ????

        immigration rates.

        deforestation per capita.

        Australian per capita reductions in CO2 are probably some of the largest in the world.

        got a link? the our world in data which is used in the comment says that China is increasing its forest, there is no net deforestation, per capita or otherwise

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          I’ve got lots of links, and if you only read my site Peter, you would know that. Because I’ve published on this many times since you started your 5,000 comment streak. Or are you just playing stupid?

          E.G. You saw this and commented on it in April 2021: Australians have cut, per capita, their emissions by 46%.

          The bald fact is that you act as though you don’t believe actual tons of CO2 has any bad effect on Earth.
          If you did, you would not be an apologist for China.

          “The hard numbers: Australian emissions have been cut 46% per capita, while the population grew 50% larger and the GDP grew 135%.”

          As for distance per capita — go ahead, name a major economy with a lower population density or larger distances to their export markets? This is baby basic stuff and yet it baffled you “????”

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            b.nice

            Mods…. bold, italic etc at top of post entry box are all empty and don’t respond.

            Is it my end or the server ?

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            Peter Fitzroy

            Any of the pacific islands come to mind. But how does that metric mean anything?

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              … because it takes energy to move things (?), so we would expect a low population density nation to need more energy per capita for transport to cover greater distances.

              PS: You are wrong on the pacific islands too. Australia ranks 229th out of 234 countries in population density. So there are only five below us in pop density, and none of those are in the Pacific. Which country do you live in again?

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              b.nice

              Pacific island get their electricity main from fossil fuels.

              Do you really think they want to destroy their islands with inefficient, intermittent wind turbines or 8 hr/day solar panels.

              Unfortunately for them, that is what the green anti-environMENTALists will force them to do. 🙁

              Say goodbye to their only industry.. tourism !

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          b.nice

          Great to see you CHEERING ON the release of huge amounts of CO2 to the atmospheric, PF. 🙂

          You obviously now believe “the more the better”

          (having proven to yourself and everyone else here, that its absolutely beneficial to all life on Earth, and that it doesn’t cause any warming)

          The real question is, why are our politicians not as awake to that fact as you are ?!

          Why do they insist on the idiocy of CO2 reduction at the expense of the destruction of our society ?!

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      Yeah, look, that figures for Peter Fitzroy.

      No idea about the situation in China whatsoever, just thinks that we here in Australia are gluttonous power consumers, profligate with our ancient coal fired plants delivering the power for hungry consumers, all of us consuming power like there’s no tomorrow, automatically thinking that the Chinese are more responsible than we are when it comes to power consumption, using that per capita falsity that green urgers unthinkingly resort to.

      And here we are, with a whopping 40% of all generated power going into the residential sector here in Australia, funnily enough, almost the same percentage to the residential sector as in the U.S. oh, and also in the rest of the already Developed World.

      As I said above, when I started doing this, that percentage of generated power going into the Residential sector in China was around 4.8%, and now, with the absolute humungous amount of coal fired power on line in China, that percentage of power going to the Residential sector is up to a huge ….. 16%, still waaaaaay behind us here in, umm, your so called little old Australia.

      So, Peter, 16% of the population you so worry about have (well, sort of anyway) similar access to electrical power in their homes that we already have here in Australia. Back in 2008, when I started all this, fully 30% of that Chinese population at that time had ….. ZERO access to power in their homes.

      In EXACTLY the same manner that power became available to the residential sector in both the U.S. and here in Australia, in other words, the vast bulk of power going to Industry first, then the residential sector benefitted from that, and then the Commerce sector as well, to the point now where the largest percentage goes to the residential sector and the smallest to the Industrial Sector, the opposite of what it was at the end of WW2, and right up to the mid 70s.

      Coal fired power has boomed in China to supply Industry, you know, all that Industry that was once here in Australia, and the U.S. and has now moved to China. The advantage of that is that now, more and more Chinese have access to power in their homes.

      So Peter, that per capita power consumption thing, and by extrapolation, that per capita CO2 emissions thing that so worries you is in fact something you have not even bothered to find out about.

      I made a pact with myself never to respond to you over recent times, not enough hours in the day to get infuriated over the tripe you come out with, but sometimes, your absolute ignorance of facts astonishes me to the point where I just have to respond.

      And Peter, you wonder why people people respond to you so negatively when you think you have the ‘moral’ righteousness on your side.

      Peter, this is pretty much normal for you ….. open mouth, change feet!!

      Tony.

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        Peter Fitzroy

        The word total in the phrase total energy per capita, it is not just residential, as total means all energy

        I made a pact with myself never to respond to you over recent times, not enough hours in the day to get infuriated over the tripe you come out with, but sometimes, your absolute ignorance of facts astonishes me to the point where I just have to respond.

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          b.nice

          So you are now saying that the TOTAL amount of CO2 is not a problem.

          (Yes, we are all aware that atmospheric CO2 at any level ever possible, is NOT a problem)

          But who produces it…. That is the leftist problem. !

          China OK,

          Australia producing a tiny fraction of that amount.. bad

          That is really RACIST of you, PF

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          b.nice

          “I made a pact with myself never to respond to you over recent times… blah , blah….”

          Now you take the Norwegian Blue route of mindless regurgitation. As you always have.

          Don’t worry about any actual science, because we all know you don’t have any !

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        Neville

        So Tony here’s my very brief history of the Human race.
        Fully evolved Humans have existed for at least 200,000 years, see the latest data from scientists, anthropologists etc.
        Human population was always very small and about 150 to 200 million by 1 AD.
        The first billion by 1810 and the UK had already started the Ind REV in about 1750.
        Certainly for the first 99.9% of Human existence we were poor and sick and life expectancy was under 40 years.
        I’m using UN data and OWI Data etc also uses the same data.
        But since 1810 we’ve made huge increases in life expectancy, yet by 1950 Human life expectancy was still about 45.5 years and poor Africa ( pop just 227 million) only 36 years.
        By 1970 global life exp had increased to 56.5 years and Africa about 46 years and pop 365 million.
        But today Human life exp has increased to 73 years and Africa 64 years and their population has increased to over 1400 million.
        And global pop today is 5.3 billion more than the 3.7 billion in 1970.
        And the Ind REV period from 1800 to 2023 is only about the last 0.1% of our fully Human existence.
        Does anyone not understand the last remarkable 220 + years since the start of the Ind REV?
        I can’t see an EXISTENTIAL THREAT to Humans since 1970 or since 1990 and in fact we have flourished over that period of time.

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      b.nice

      But China ARE considering their population..

      That is why they are putting in so much extra RELIABLE electricity supply !

      Its the twerps Albo , Bowen et al that obviously couldn’t give a rats **** about their own countries population.

      ——–

      “Thank goodness we don’t have to consider population,”

      The leftist agenda writ large !!! Zero consideration of society or our population..

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    […] Editor’s Note: Yes, no enviro or anyone at the EU, the IPCC or WEF cares a whit about coal use in India and China because climate is all about the corporatism and the power seeking. Science and the environment are irrelevant. Only forcing the West into the climate scam to trigger the release of trillions and eventually defenestrate the United States matters in the least. Consider this from the great Jo Nova: […]

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