this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2024
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China Installed More Solar Panels Last Year Than the U.S. Has in Total::China installed more new solar capacity last year than the total amount ever installed in any other country.

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[โ€“] NickwithaC@lemmy.world 56 points 9 months ago (53 children)

Good news for one of the planet's most polluting countries.

[โ€“] nednobbins@lemm.ee 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

A lot of people don't realize how quickly China is changing. Things that were true just a few decades ago are often no longer true.

Once China decided that pollution was a problem they went all in on addressing it. China has massive reforestation projects, huge incentives to switch to EVs, and much tighter energy efficiency standards.

Solar isn't even their only renewable energy source. China gets about equal amounts from solar, wind and hydro https://www.spglobal.com/commodityinsights/en/market-insights/latest-news/energy-transition/013124-coal-still-accounted-for-nearly-60-of-chinas-electricity-supply-in-2023-cec ~~together they make up a little less than half of their total energy production and the ratio keeps improving.~~ correction: those are projected ratios, not current ratios.

Of course, on a per capita basis, China isn't even close to being a top polluter. Unless you think that people in smaller countries deserve to pollute more, per-capita is the better measurement. China looks a little worse if you do that but it's still far from a top polluter by that metric.

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