Latest news with #LauriMyllyvirta
Vox
27-05-2025
- Business
- Vox
The world's largest emitter just delivered some good climate news
is a correspondent at Vox writing about climate change, energy policy, and science. He is also a regular contributor to the radio program Science Friday. Prior to Vox, he was a reporter for ClimateWire at E&E News. Panda Solar Station in Datong, Shanxi Province of China. The first Panda Solar Station began operations on August 10, 2017. The station's installed capacity is 100MW, which is estimated to generate 3.2 billion kWh of electricity, saving 1.06 million tons of coal and reducing 2.74 million tons of carbon dioxide emission during its expected lifespan of 25 years. Visual China Group via Getty Images/Visual China Group via Getty Images China is the world's largest single greenhouse gas emitter, spewing more than double the amount of heat-trapping chemicals as the next biggest climate polluter, the United States. For decades, China's emissions soared ever higher as its economy grew, burning extraordinary volumes of coal, oil, and natural gas to light up cities, power factories, and fuel cars. The trend seemed unstoppable: At one point, China was approving two new coal power plants per week. It was an alarming prospect for the whole world. 'Eighty-five percent of emissions for the remainder of the century are projected to occur outside the EU and the US,' said Michael Greenstone, an economist at the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago. 'If we're going to make real progress on climate change, that will require reductions from that 85 percent.' And since China is the single-largest emitter, there's no feasible way to meet international climate change targets without them on board. But now, for the first time, there's been a shift: China's greenhouse gas emissions have actually fallen even as energy demand went up. According to a new report at Carbon Brief by Lauri Myllyvirta, an analyst at Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, China's overall greenhouse gas emissions have dropped for the first time, thanks largely to the country's aggressive build-out of clean energy. Looking at official statistics and commercial data, the analysis shows greenhouse gas output fell 1 percent over the past year, even as China's overall energy use and economic activity increased. It's not a massive shift, but the fact that the curve has bent at all is a major development for the global effort against climate change. The growth rate of humanity's greenhouse gas emissions has begun to level off, but it has yet to decline. In order to eventually halt human-caused warming, that rate has to effectively reach zero, and in order to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement, that has to happen roughly within the next three decades. The decline of emissions in China is a big step toward this international goal, and the timing puts it on course for its own climate targets, too. China had previously committed to peaking its greenhouse gas emissions before 2030. 'This is a little ahead of schedule,' Greenstone said. 'The planet is happy about that.' Why did this happen? In large part, the decline in emissions came from clean electricity production. China deployed vastly more wind, solar, and nuclear power — sources that don't emit carbon dioxide — at a pace faster than its electricity demand growth. Meanwhile, its coal and gas electricity production dropped. China's emissions have dipped before due to economic slowdowns, so the fact that its economy grew while emissions declined is a significant turning point, putting China in a league with more than 30 countries, including the US, that have already done the same. China has established itself as the world's largest producer of solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles, and batteries, driving down prices for the global market. It's deploying these technologies within its own borders, as well as exporting them en masse, and some of its biggest customers are developing countries. That means China's investments in clean energy redound to the rest of the world. Renewables accounted for 90 percent of new power capacity installed worldwide last year. Later this year, countries will gather in Brazil for the COP30 climate conference, where world leaders will hash out how to bring new, stronger commitments to cut their contributions to climate change by 2035. China's President Xi Jinping pledged that his country will come to the table with a comprehensive plan to further reduce its emissions across its economy, while the US may not show up at all. One his first day of his second term, President Donald Trump began the process of pulling the country out of the Paris climate agreement altogether. Again. However, in the Carbon Brief report, Myllyvirta noted that China's small drop in emissions could easily go back up. If its economy grows even faster, demand for fossil fuels could rise again. Whether that happens depends, in part, on how the dust settles on the tariff fight between the US and China. High trade barriers would slow China's economy. Losing the US as a customer could push China to try to compensate by installing more clean energy domestically. China also emits greenhouse gases other than carbon dioxide. In particular, China is releasing high levels of HFC-23, a byproduct of making nonstick coatings and a pollutant that is thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide when it comes to trapping heat in the atmosphere. China committed to halting HFC-23 pollution entirely when it signed the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol in 2021.
HKFP
20-05-2025
- Climate
- HKFP
Record May heat scorches north, central China: state media
Swathes of northern and central China sweltered this week under record May heat, state media said Tuesday, with temperatures rising well above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in several major cities. China has endured spates of extreme weather events, from searing heat and drought to downpours and floods, for several summers running. The country is the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter, but also a renewable energy powerhouse seeking to cut carbon dioxide emissions to net zero by 2060. State broadcaster CCTV said Tuesday that multiple cities logged all-time May highs this week. They included Zhengzhou, a metropolis of 13 million people in central Henan province, which saw a high of 41°C on Monday, CCTV said. In nearby Linzhou, temperatures rose to 43.2°C, while the small city of Shahe in northern Hebei province logged 42.9°C, the national weather office said in a social media post on Monday. As of 4:00 pm on Monday, 99 weather stations nationwide had matched or exceeded previous temperature records for May, the weather office said. '(It's so hot) in Zhengzhou that I'm covered in sweat just from cycling for 10 minutes in a skirt and sun-protective top,' one user wrote on the Weibo social media platform. 'Any chance you could send a few degrees up to the northeast? It's still freezing here,' quipped another. The weather office said the extreme heat was set to dissipate by Friday, adding that some areas would see rapid drops of up to 15°C. It urged people to 'add extra layers of clothing in a timely way as the weather changes, (to avoid) catching a cold'. Embed from Getty Images Last year, dozens of people were killed and thousands evacuated during storms across China that caused severe flooding. China is the biggest global producer of the greenhouse gases scientists say drive climate change and make extreme weather more frequent and intense. Beijing aims to bring carbon emissions to a peak this decade ahead of sharp cuts through to 2060, and has dramatically ramped up wind and solar energy installations in recent years as it seeks to wean its huge economy off highly polluting coal. Emissions peaking? China's emissions fell in the first quarter of 2025 despite rapidly growing power demand, analysis published last week showed, seen as a key milestone in the country's decarbonisation push. New wind, solar and nuclear capacity meant CO2 emissions fell by 1.6 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, and one percent in the 12 months to March, said analyst Lauri Myllyvirta at the Finland-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA). Last month, China's national energy body said wind and solar energy capacity had surpassed that of mostly coal-powered thermal for the first time. It added that wind and solar additions had 'far exceeded' the total increase in electricity consumption, a trend that experts said may mean carbon emissions from the power sector are on the verge of peaking. Despite the renewable energy boom, China also began construction on 94.5 gigawatts of coal power projects in 2024, 93 percent of the global total, according to a February report from CREA and the US-based Global Energy Monitor (GEM). China's coal production has risen steadily in recent years, from 3.9 billion tons in 2020 to 4.8 billion tons in 2024.
Free Malaysia Today
20-05-2025
- Climate
- Free Malaysia Today
Record May heat scorches north, central China
The weather office said extreme heat will ease by Friday, with some areas expecting rapid temperature drops of up to 15C. (EPA Images pic) BEIJING : Swathes of northern and central China sweltered this week under record May heat, state media said Tuesday, with temperatures rising well above 40C in several major cities. China has endured spates of extreme weather events, from searing heat and drought to downpours and floods, for several summers running. The country is the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter, but also a renewable energy powerhouse seeking to cut carbon dioxide emissions to net zero by 2060. State broadcaster CCTV said Tuesday that multiple cities logged all-time May highs this week. They included Zhengzhou, a metropolis of 13 million people in central Henan province, which saw a high of 41C on Monday, CCTV said. In nearby Linzhou, temperatures rose to 43.2C, while the small city of Shahe in northern Hebei province logged 42.9C, the national weather office said in a social media post on Monday. As of 4pm on Monday, 99 weather stations nationwide had matched or exceeded previous temperature records for May, the weather office said. '(It's so hot) in Zhengzhou that I'm covered in sweat just from cycling for 10 minutes in a skirt and sun-protective top,' one user wrote on the Weibo social media platform. 'Any chance you could send a few degrees up to the northeast? It's still freezing here,' quipped another. The weather office said the extreme heat was set to dissipate by Friday, adding that some areas would see rapid drops of up to 15C. It urged people to 'add extra layers of clothing in a timely way as the weather changes, (to avoid) catching a cold'. Last year, dozens of people were killed and thousands evacuated during storms across China that caused severe flooding. China is the biggest global producer of the greenhouse gases scientists say drive climate change and make extreme weather more frequent and intense. Beijing aims to bring carbon emissions to a peak this decade ahead of sharp cuts through to 2060, and has dramatically ramped up wind and solar energy installations in recent years as it seeks to wean its huge economy off highly polluting coal. Emissions peaking? China's emissions fell in the first quarter of 2025 despite rapidly growing power demand, analysis published last week showed, seen as a key milestone in the country's decarbonisation push. New wind, solar and nuclear capacity meant CO2 emissions fell by 1.6% year-on-year in the first quarter, and one percent in the 12 months to March, said analyst Lauri Myllyvirta at the Finland-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA). Last month, China's national energy body said wind and solar energy capacity had surpassed that of mostly coal-powered thermal for the first time. It added that wind and solar additions had 'far exceeded' the total increase in electricity consumption, a trend that experts said may mean carbon emissions from the power sector are on the verge of peaking. Despite the renewable energy boom, China also began construction on 94.5 gigawatts of coal power projects in 2024, 93% of the global total, according to a February report from CREA and the US-based Global Energy Monitor (GEM). China's coal production has risen steadily in recent years, from 3.9 billion tonnes in 2020 to 4.8 billion tonnes in 2024.
France 24
20-05-2025
- Climate
- France 24
Record May heat scorches north, central China
China has endured spates of extreme weather events, from searing heat and drought to downpours and floods, for several summers running. The country is the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter, but also a renewable energy powerhouse seeking to cut carbon dioxide emissions to net zero by 2060. State broadcaster CCTV said Tuesday that multiple cities logged all-time May highs this week. They included Zhengzhou, a metropolis of 13 million people in central Henan province, which saw a high of 41C on Monday, CCTV said. In nearby Linzhou, temperatures rose to 43.2C, while the small city of Shahe in northern Hebei province logged 42.9C, the national weather office said in a social media post on Monday. As of 4:00 pm on Monday, 99 weather stations nationwide had matched or exceeded previous temperature records for May, the weather office said. "(It's so hot) in Zhengzhou that I'm covered in sweat just from cycling for 10 minutes in a skirt and sun-protective top," one user wrote on the Weibo social media platform. "Any chance you could send a few degrees up to the northeast? It's still freezing here," quipped another. The weather office said the extreme heat was set to dissipate by Friday, adding that some areas would see rapid drops of up to 15C. It urged people to "add extra layers of clothing in a timely way as the weather changes, (to avoid) catching a cold". Last year, dozens of people were killed and thousands evacuated during storms across China that caused severe flooding. China is the biggest global producer of the greenhouse gases scientists say drive climate change and make extreme weather more frequent and intense. Beijing aims to bring carbon emissions to a peak this decade ahead of sharp cuts through to 2060, and has dramatically ramped up wind and solar energy installations in recent years as it seeks to wean its huge economy off highly polluting coal. Emissions peaking? China's emissions fell in the first quarter of 2025 despite rapidly growing power demand, analysis published last week showed, seen as a key milestone in the country's decarbonisation push. New wind, solar and nuclear capacity meant CO2 emissions fell by 1.6 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, and one percent in the 12 months to March, said analyst Lauri Myllyvirta at the Finland-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA). Last month, China's national energy body said wind and solar energy capacity had surpassed that of mostly coal-powered thermal for the first time. It added that wind and solar additions had "far exceeded" the total increase in electricity consumption, a trend that experts said may mean carbon emissions from the power sector are on the verge of peaking. Despite the renewable energy boom, China also began construction on 94.5 gigawatts of coal power projects in 2024, 93 percent of the global total, according to a February report from CREA and the US-based Global Energy Monitor (GEM).
Bloomberg
19-05-2025
- Science
- Bloomberg
China's Path to Deeper Carbon Cuts Hinges on Next-Gen Tech
China's carbon emissions are dropping as wind and solar power flood its grid, but new breakthroughs will be needed to keep the energy transition on track in the world's largest polluter, according to new research. Emissions have fallen by 1% since March 2024 after record renewables growth crowded out fossil fuels in meeting new electricity demand, according to the Centre for Research on Clean Air and Energy. While the country has seen short-term declines before, this is the first time it's been driven primarily by clean energy, according to researcher Lauri Myllyvirta.
