Henan S88 Expressway Photo by Windmemories

By Jo Nova

Does this look like a country that cares about carbon emissions?

President Xi said he would “strictly control” coal power from 2021 to 2025, and he has strictly controlled… a huge increase in coal power.

President Xi: — Reuters (April 2021) –“We will strictly limit the increase in coal consumption over the 14th five-year plan period (2021-2025) and phase it down in the 15th five-year plan period (2026-2030),” he said.

But nobody cares either:

China’s 2024 coal power construction hits 10-year high, researchers say

SINGAPORE, Feb 13 (Reuters) – China started construction on 94.5 gigawatts of coal-fired power in 2024, the highest volume of new builds since 2015, hampering the country’s transition away from fossil fuels, researchers said…

The surge came despite a record-breaking increase in renewable capacity last year and could make it harder to connect clean power to the grid, said the report, published by CREA and the Global Energy Monitor (GEM) think tank.

China also promised its emissions will peak in 2030, right when a whole squadron of these new plants will have barely started operation. But it’s OK because […]