It’s crazy to me that the highest populated countries that are most affected by it by that article (China and US) are contributing the most to it (unchecked capitalism) and still refuse see their connnection to their own discomfort

[–] z2k_@lemmy.nz 8 points 1 year ago

https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2023/jun/29/china-wind-solar-power-global-renewable-energy-leader

Not a China shill but I’m pretty sure they see the connection and have been investing heavily in renewables.

[–] Jawzper@aussie.zone 6 points 1 year ago

Bit of a stretch to say that they are "most affected by it" when there are pacific islands that are going to be sinking off the map pretty soon.

[–] redtea@lemmygrad.ml 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You might want to look into what China is doing. They definitely see their connection to emissions and are definitely doing something about it.

[–] OceanSoap@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Do you have links to show what they're doing? Because as far as I was aware, the only climate issues they're trying to fix is air pollution in big cities like Hong Kong. I haven't seen anything about them trying to save the planet.

[–] redtea@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Have a look at this and look at the links inside for more info: https://web.archive.org/web/20230716192140/https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1680243524124516352.html

People will bring up coal to challenge the argument that China is serious about taking climate change. China is building many new coal plants, which seems counterintuitive. I, and I'm sure they, would prefer not to. But they're not quite ready to fully transition off, so the next best thing is upgrading then. If you look into the details, they're replacing old plants with incredibly efficient ones. Here's a separate link about that: https://www.americanprogress.org/article/everything-think-know-coal-china-wrong/

We had a bit of a discussion about all this, here: https://lemmygrad.ml/post/971810

Edit: China is also building high speed rail to help other countries transition away from cars and old, inefficient rail. E.g. in Indonesia: https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202208/1273572.shtml and in Laos: https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/china-laos-open-6-billion-high-speed-rail-link-2021-12-03/ . This is part of global plans, such as the BRI (Belt and Road Initiative).

There are environmental concerns with BRI, e.g. https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440221078836 and https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/02/the-potential-climate-consequences-of-chinas-belt-and-roads-initiative/ . The World Bank's view is negative-to-mixed: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/regional-integration/brief/belt-and-road-initiative .

It must me remembered, however, that many if not most of the states that China is working with aren't even close to their 'fair share' of global emissions: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(22)00044-4 . As the tech improves, the emissions attached to BRI development will reduce.