China has the highest CO2 emissions in the world. Around 30 percent of all climate-damaging CO2 emissions come from the Middle Kingdom. But China is also a leader in the production of renewable energies, especially solar energy. Where is the journey heading?
00:00 China is the country with the largest CO2 emissions in the world.
00:05 Around 30% of the overall climate damaging CO2 emissions are blasted into the air there.
00:12 China actually wanted to manage to reduce CO2 emissions shortly before 2030.
00:17 The country's president said it in an earlier speech.
00:21 Our goal is to reach the maximum level of CO2 emissions before 2030 and achieve climate neutrality from 2060.
00:29 We aim to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.
00:35 But now experts are saying that China will be continuously and drastically reducing its CO2 emissions starting next year already.
00:44 How could this happen so quickly?
00:46 For decades China's political leadership has promoted a massive expansion of coal-fired power plants.
00:56 Thanks to cheap electricity, the People's Republic has worked its way up from a developing country to the second largest economy in the world.
01:04 At 30.9%, China is responsible for almost a third of global CO2 emissions.
01:11 It's followed in the ranking by the United States at around 13%, as well as India and Russia.
01:18 Then Japan with almost 3% of global CO2 emissions.
01:25 However, experts now believe that China will manage to drastically reduce its CO2 emissions very quickly.
01:32 I see actually new dynamics into bringing the emissions faster down than China initially has announced.
01:41 Especially because of the investment into renewable energy.
01:46 There's a steep increase into investments, into renewables, but also into energy efficiency.
01:53 This is particularly evident in the massive expansion of solar energy in China.
01:58 The country is the world's largest producer of solar panels, and they are being installed on a gigantic scale.
02:05 The target is to triple global capacity of renewable energy generation from 2022 to 2030.
02:15 So that's a very ambitious goal, but also in line with climate growth.
02:21 China was already the champion of renewable energies last year, with over 1,100 gigawatts of newly installed electricity generation.
02:30 That was followed by the US with 352 gigawatts, just a third of China's capacity.
02:36 Brazil and India follow far behind.
02:39 And Germany, which only achieves around 13% of China's renewable energy output.
02:46 China's climate-neutral energy policy is based on the expansion of wind energy, nuclear power, and hydropower.
02:53 And the biggest increase is in solar energy.
02:58 But China is not satisfied with just having the world's largest solar parks.
03:03 Starting in 2021, the government launched a gigantic solar roof program, which is being eagerly implemented by all the cantons.
03:12 Many private homeowners and municipal buildings will receive solar panels, 100 gigawatts this year alone, which is more than the US installs in one year.
03:22 This trend is supported by the massive promotion of climate-friendly e-cars, which already account for 8% of all Chinese cars, whose share is growing massively.
03:33 In addition, construction activity is stagnating for the foreseeable future, meaning less climate-friendly concrete will be produced.
03:41 And this is leading to, much faster than expected, an extreme reduction in CO2 levels, according to experts.
03:49 Currently, about 70% of the power in China is generated from coal, and the share can fall below 50% by 2030.
03:59 In the end, China may even be able to solve the problems of CO2 emissions faster than some Western industrialized countries.
04:09 And at the same time, drive forward its market leadership of solar and wind energy.
