Net zero Europe is deindustrialising while China burns coal
Europe's present state is hardly surprising. Its industrial base is getting whittled away by net zero policies, with the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to preserve the environment placed ahead of almost everything else, including economic growth. Worse, China is ramping up coal-fired power at the same time. The net effect is not likely to be net zero but economic suicide for the West.
Europeans need a strong economy not only to sustain their standards of living – those long summer and Christmas holidays, early retirements, and visits to bars and cafes – but also for a strong defence, as demonstrated by the war in Ukraine.
Yet the EU is aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050, making the continent so-called climate neutral. The aim is to tighten the rules progressively. By 2030, the plan is for net CO2 emissions to be 55 per cent lower than 1990 levels, and 90 per cent lower by 2040.
Clean air and water are of course worthy goals. But according to the Heritage Institute's Climate Calculator, based on government economic and climate models, reducing Europe's entire CO2 emissions to zero would have a net temperature mitigation of only about 0.12 degrees Celsius by 2100, assuming the highest climate sensitivity to carbon.
The argument that any level of government intervention is justified to 'save the planet' is therefore seriously flawed. Especially since making all those solar panels and batteries – net zero technologies that Europe requires – currently drives up the use of fossil fuels. China manufactures 80 per cent of global solar panels, for example, with production mostly powered by fossil fuels, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Despite promises in the Paris Agreement to curb CO2 emissions, Beijing continues to rely heavily on coal as a primary energy source. The country's coal consumption and coal-powered generation have seen significant growth, with China consuming almost 5 billion tons of coal in 2023, representing 56 per cent of global coal consumption.
Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged in 2021 to 'strictly control coal power projects', but in 2024 China is estimated to have begun construction on 94.5 GW of new coal capacity, the highest since 2015. Although electricity generation from wind and solar sources is increasing, coal-powered generation rose from under 1,000 TWh in 2000 to 5,864 TWh in 2024, highlighting the ongoing expansion of coal power in China.
Due to higher prices for electricity in the West, energy-intensive manufacturing has been shipped to countries like China, which do not so slavishly follow net zero nostrums. Europe's progressive policies are effectively contributing to China's industrial might.
This makes a mockery of the West's goal to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, and its costly international pledges and agreements aimed at reducing carbon footprints. While the West pushes forward with renewable energy and de-industrialisation, China's coal consumption and power expansion undermine the global effort. The dichotomy between these two approaches underscores the futility of net zero policies in Europe.
They are also preventing growth in Africa and Latin America. Europeans have pressured international organisations not to lend for fossil fuel projects in emerging economies, where hundreds of millions of people lack electricity, sanitation, or running water. Although the number of members declined after President Donald Trump took office, banks in the Net Zero Banking Alliance are also expected to abide by a UN-requested pledge not to lend for fossil fuel projects.
With America putting new offshore wind on hold, and with lower US demand for Chinese wind turbines and solar panels, there is a real danger that inefficient renewables will be dumped in Africa and Latin America, with these countries forced to take out expensive loans to pay for them. Instead, American companies should be assisting emerging economies to produce baseload power, selling them modern power plants to take advantage of their rich natural resources of coal, oil, and gas.
As well as moving away from net zero, President Trump and vice-president Vance can encourage others to do the same. For while America may be championing sensible energy policies, Europe's unwavering commitment to extreme environmentalism is likely to continue to lead to slower economic growth and declining hard power.
With America's new energy dominance, Europeans cannot ignore China's burning coal fires, which mock the EU's senseless deindustrialisation.
Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
15 minutes ago
- Yahoo
UK foreign minister faces fine after JD Vance fishing trip licence error
UK foreign minister faces fine after JD Vance fishing trip licence error LONDON (Reuters) -Britain's foreign minister David Lammy could be on the hook for a 2,500 pounds ($3,394) fine following his fishing trip last week with U.S. Vice President JD Vance, after admitting he didn't have the required licence. Vance and Lammy were pictured by invited media as they fished in the lake at the foreign minister's Chevening country residence in southeast England before a bilateral meeting as part of the vice president's working holiday to Britain. The vice president later joked on camera that the only strain on the U.S.-British special relationship was that while his three children had caught fish, the British foreign minister had not. All anglers are required by law to have a valid rod licence while they are fishing, regardless of whether they catch anything and whether they are on private land. Breaches can be punished with a fine of up to 2,500 pounds ($3,394). Lammy's office on Wednesday said he had not purchased the licence before the trip and had since sought to rectify the mistake. "The Foreign Secretary has written to the Environment Agency over an administrative oversight that meant the appropriate licences had not been acquired for fishing on a private lake as part of a diplomatic engagement at Chevening House last week," a spokesperson for Britain's Foreign Office said in a statement. "As soon as the Foreign Secretary was made aware of the administrative error, he successfully purchased the relevant rod fishing licences." The spokesperson had no immediate comment on whether a licence had been purchased for Vance too. Vance is in England with his wife Usha and their children, who are spending this week in the hamlet of Dean in the picturesque Cotswolds, following their stay at Chevening. ($1 = 0.7367 pounds)
New York Post
16 minutes ago
- New York Post
UCLA spent millions of taxpayer dollars on DEI, has professors who compared Israel to Nazis: watchdog
As the Trump administration pushes for the University of California, Los Angeles, to pony up $1 billion to settle discrimination claims, a sweeping new report has highlighted professors who compared Israeli rhetoric to that of the Nazis and accused the Zionist movement of white supremacy. The watchdog also zinged UCLA for spending at least $3 million in taxpayer money on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. 'We support free expression and viewpoint diversity, but faddish, divisive concepts like anticolonialism and antiracism don't need taxpayer funds sustaining them,' said Jon Hart, CEO of report author Open the Books. Advertisement 'On campuses like UCLA, the rhetoric has caught up with reality with damaging consequences.' One professor named and shamed in the report is Khaled Abou El Fadl, who teaches at UCLA's law school and has been described as a leading expert on Sharia, Islamic law and Islam. 4 The University of California, Los Angeles, had been a hotbed of anti-Israel protests. Los Angeles Times via Getty Images Advertisement 4 Education Secretary Linda McMahon has been overseeing the crackdown on college campuses. AP El Fadl was filmed in late 2023 drawing parallels between Israel and Nazi Germany. His inflammatory remarks followed the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack against the Jewish state. 'The Germans blamed the Jews for their own slaughter. The Germans insisted that what they did in the countries they occupied wasn't their fault,' he said at the time. 'It was always the fault of the occupied. The rhetoric of the Germans is indistinguishable from the rhetoric that Israel uses about Palestinians.' Advertisement Later in the same video, El Fadl vented that Palestinians 'are considered like animals. Exactly like the Nazis looked at Jews.' 'Something subhuman, something less than human, exactly like the narrative and the language of the Nazis,' he went on. Open the Books also knocked UCLA history professor Robin Kelley, an advisory board member of the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, which is part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against the US ally. Advertisement 'The way that Zionism has emerged in Israel has basically taken up the mantle of white supremacy,' Kelley said during a 2017 University of Toronto lecture, 'that is, domination by the peoples, through colonial domination.' In 2021, in a lecture at York University, Kelley also suggested a direct link between Israel and Nazi Germany. 'I was thinking about what it meant when Germany… gave $58 billion to Israel to help start a nation in the name of reparations,' he said at the time. 'In the name of reparations for the Holocaust, it literally provided start-up capital for new settler-colonial state.' Shortly after the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, two professors convened an 'Emergency Teach-In On The Crisis in Palestine,' calling Israel a 'settler colonial' society. One of those professors later told The Post that Israel is 'a power driven by an exclusionary racial ideology.' 4 President Trump's team has been leveraging federal aid to pressure colleges and universities into making significant reforms. REUTERS Those two professors were listed on a grant application for the Department of Education's Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) initiative. UCLA has raked in some $6.1 million worth of FLAS grants from taxpayers since 2020. UCLA touts its antisemitism crackdown In response to questions about the Open the Books report, a spokesperson for UCLA stressed that the school's 'partnership with the federal government advances life-saving care, research, and economic innovation in California and across the nation.' 'Americans depend on the research pioneered at UCLA,' Mary Osako, UCLA Vice Chancellor for Strategic Communications, told The Post. 'We have been abundantly clear that antisemitism has no place on our campus.' Advertisement 'We have taken concrete steps to extinguish hate by taking decisive action against groups for violating our longstanding policies and launching our Initiative to Combat Antisemitism earlier this year.' The school also highlighted some of its efforts to curtail antisemitism, such as its interim suspension of Students for Justice in Palestine and Graduate Students for Justice in Palestine back in February following the vandalization of Jewish regent Jay Sures' home. The school has also tightened its rules for protests and has worked with the Los Angeles Police Department to investigate those who violate campus policies. Showdown with Trump Since the start of this month, the Trump administration has frozen some $584 million in federal funding, according to UCLA chancellor Julio Frenk. Advertisement The Trump administration has accused the university of civil rights infractions for failing to protect Jewish students during pro-Palestinian demonstrations that erupted on campus following the Oct. 7, 2023, attack. UCLA was infamously the site of a 'Jew Exclusion Zone,' in which protesters blocked parts of campus to community members who did not have a certain wristband. Last month, the university agreed to pay $6 million to settle discrimination complaints brought by Jewish faculty and students in connection with the demonstrations. 4 The Trump administration has sought a $1 billion settlement from UCLA. Anadolu via Getty Images DEI grants Advertisement Open the Books also highlighted about $3 million worth of DEI-related grants that UCLA received over recent years. This includes about $1 million since 2021 to research 'equity and antiracist learning in computer science,' according to data found from USA Spending. UCLA also raked in at least $216,000 'to increase participation of underrepresented groups in the mathematical sciences' and $1.6 million since 2020 for a 'workshop on mathematics on racial justice.' Overall, UCLA has taken in at least $4.3 billion from the taxpayers between 2021 and June 2025.
Newsweek
17 minutes ago
- Newsweek
China Rival Eyes More US Weapons: Full List
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Taiwan is reportedly planning to place additional weapons orders—including air defense systems and rocket launchers—with its security partner, the United States, as the self-ruled democratic island faces increasing military pressure from its powerful neighbor, China. Newsweek has emailed the Taiwanese Defense Ministry for comment. China's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Why It Matters The Chinese Communist Party has long claimed sovereignty over Taiwan, despite never having governed the island. Chinese leader Xi Jinping has vowed to use force to achieve unification if necessary, and his armed forces have been preparing for a potential invasion of Taiwan. While the U.S. no longer maintains diplomatic relations with Taiwan, it is required by the Taiwan Relations Act to provide the island with defensive arms and to maintain its own capability to resist any attempt to resolve cross-strait differences by non-peaceful means. Facing China's military buildup, the U.S. has stated that Taiwan should increase its defense spending to closer to 10 percent of its Gross Domestic Product, even though President Donald Trump once refused to answer whether he was committed to defending the island. What To Know Taiwan plans to acquire an additional 28 American rocket launchers—known as the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS)—and nine National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS), the Taiwanese newspaper Taipei Times reported on Sunday. The Taiwanese military conducts its first High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) live-fire test launch at Jiupeng base in Pingtung, Taiwan, on May 12, 2025. The Taiwanese military conducts its first High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) live-fire test launch at Jiupeng base in Pingtung, Taiwan, on May 12, 2025. I-HWA CHENG/AFP via Getty Images According to the report, which cited military sources, Taiwan previously agreed to purchase 29 HIMARS launchers capable of firing rockets or missiles, with the first 11 launchers delivered in 2024. Taiwan's HIMARS launchers were used for the first time in a live-fire exercise on the island in May 2025. The U.S. previously approved the sale of three NASAMS to Taiwan, which are expected to be deployed near the island's capital, Taipei, with the first to be delivered by the end of the year. The additional systems will enhance the defense of central and southern Taiwan. HIMARS is a long-range, mobile, precision-fire launcher capable of firing four different variants of munitions. NASAMS is a short-to-medium-range, land-based air defense system designed to protect bases, ports, populated areas and other high-value assets. Ukraine—which like Taiwan is faced by a hostile neighbor with much greater military resources—has used HIMARS and NASAMS in its war against Russia. The Norwegian Army fires a National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) from the Andøya Space Range in Andøya, Norway, against a simulated threat on May 10, 2023. The Norwegian Army fires a National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS) from the Andøya Space Range in Andøya, Norway, against a simulated threat on May 10, 2023. Royal Norwegian Navy Meanwhile, another Taiwanese newspaper, the Liberty Times, reported on Monday that Taipei's military plans to purchase additional Javelin and TOW (Tube-launched, Optically Tracked, Wire-guided) 2B missiles to strengthen its anti-armor capabilities. Citing people familiar with the matter, the report said the total number of new missiles could exceed 2,000, based on their use by Ukrainian forces—which acquired them from the U.S.—and the estimated ammunition Taiwan would need in the event of a conflict. According to manufacturer Lockheed Martin, the Javelin is a shoulder-fired weapon capable of striking armored targets at their weakest points, while the TOW is claimed to be effective against "the most modern and heavily protected" armored vehicles and fortifications. What People Are Saying Senior Colonel Zhang Xiaogang, spokesperson for China's Defense Ministry, said in April: "I want to underline that U.S. arms sales to Taiwan cannot change the strength contrast between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait much less impede the historical and inevitable trend of China's reunification." Tammy Bruce, spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, said in April: "In the face of China's intimidation tactics and destabilizing behavior, the United States' enduring commitment to our allies and partners, including Taiwan, continues. The United States supports peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and opposes unilateral changes to the status quo, including through force or coercion." What Happens Next It remains to be seen whether the Trump administration will approve any weapons sales to Taiwan in the coming months, while China continues to exert military pressure on the island.
