The following article by Carlos Martinez, written for the journal Communist Review, describes China’s progress in the field of environmental protection and sustainable development.
The article gives a brief overview of the science around climate change, and introduces China’s long-term strategy of building an ecological civilisation. It goes on to give a detailed description of China’s remarkable trajectory in renewable energy and green transport, as well as afforestation and biodiversity protection.
Carlos notes that the fruits of China’s innovation and research are being shared at a global level, citing a Financial Times editorial saying that “when it comes to climate change, Beijing’s green advances should be seen as positive for China, and for the world”. Indeed China’s investment in wind and solar power has already brought costs down by as much as 90 percent. With the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) increasingly becoming a ‘Green Belt and Road’, China is supplying renewable energy infrastructure to countries around the world, particularly the Global South, providing an opportunity for many poorer countries to leapfrog the fossil fuel stage of development.
The article concludes by noting that China’s achievements in green energy are built on the basis of political economy:
China’s enormous investments have largely been made by state banks, and many of its key projects carried out by state-owned enterprises, according to strategic guidelines laid out by the government. This is possible because of the basic structure and planned nature of the Chinese economy. Which is to say, the fundamental reason China has emerged as the undisputed leader in the fight against climate breakdown is its socialist system.
Yet even in the capitalist West, “China’s example can be used to help create mass pressure to stop our governments and ruling classes from destroying the planet, and to encourage sensible cooperation with China on environmental issues.”
It is by now almost universally understood that humans need to transition away from fossil fuels and adopt renewable energy if we are to avoid catastrophic levels of climate change. As Hannah Ritchie, Deputy Editor and Lead Researcher at Our World in Data, says:
“Global temperatures are rising. Sea levels are rising; ice sheets are melting; and other species are struggling to adapt to a changing climate. Humans face an avalanche of problems from flooding and drought to wildfires and fatal heatwaves. Farmers are at risk of crop failures. Cities are at risk of being submerged. There’s one main cause: human emissions of greenhouse gases.[1]
The science is clear and widely accepted: human activity, most importantly the burning of fossil fuels, has increased the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to an unprecedented level. This has led to more heat being trapped within the Earth’s atmosphere (that is, less heat is being radiated back into space), resulting in a global heating effect, which leads to more frequent and severe weather events, rising sea levels, and shifts in ecosystems.
Data from the ice core record, going back around 800,000 years, shows that carbon dioxide concentration has fluctuated quite widely, between around 170 and 280 parts per million (ppm), with a previous peak at 300 ppm around 320,000 years ago. CO₂ levels have been stable at around 270 ppm for the last ten thousand years, until a significant upward curve starting in the early 1800s and accelerating sharply from the 1950s onwards.[2] At the time of writing (June 2024), carbon dioxide concentration is 424 ppm.
Greenhouse gas concentration will continue to increase, and the corresponding ecological problems will get significantly worse, unless we either reduce our consumption of energy to an extraordinary degree or we switch to non-emitting forms of energy. The idea of reducing humanity’s overall energy consumption is not plausible. For the majority of the world’s population, low energy consumption correlates to poverty; to low standards of living. Clearly, socialists hope that most people in the developing world, over the course of the coming decades, will increase rather than decrease their consumption of energy, and will experience a corresponding improvement in quality of life. As such, the only realistic option for preventing climate breakdown whilst continuing to pursue development is to undertake a massive global transition to green energy: to meet humanity’s energy needs without releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and without causing permanent damage to the environment.
China’s changing role
Much is made by Western journalists and politicians of the fact that China is the world’s biggest overall emitter of carbon dioxide, having overtaken the US in 2007.[3] Of course, this is not a criticism made in good faith: the Western powers have made insufficient progress in decarbonising their economies, and now aim to pin the blame on China. For example, Wopke Hoekstra, EU commissioner for climate action, commented in 2023: “I’m saying to China and others that have experienced significant economic growth and truly higher wealth than 30 years ago, that with this comes responsibility”.[4] US President Joe Biden famously claimed in his closing statement to the G20 summit in 2021 that China “basically didn’t show up in terms of any commitments to deal with climate change”, further stating that meaningful progress on climate change negotiations is “going to require us to continue to focus on what China’s not doing”.[5]
Such a position is obviously not tenable. China’s per capita emissions are around half those of the US, Canada and Australia.[6] Meanwhile, China is a developing country, with a per-capita income a quarter of that of the US. Unlike the increasingly post-industrial West, China is still undergoing modernisation and industrialisation. It is industrialisation, and the corresponding improvement in living standards, that drives China’s greenhouse gas emissions – not luxury consumption.
Emissions have started to reduce in Britain and the US over the last 20 years, but these countries continue to have an outsized responsibility for the climate crisis. Carbon dioxide remains in the atmosphere for hundreds of years. In terms of cumulative emissions — the quantity of excess greenhouse gases in the atmosphere — the US is responsible for 25 percent, although it contains just 4 percent of the world’s population. China meanwhile is responsible for 13 percent of cumulative emissions, in spite of having 18 percent of the world’s population.[7]
In his bestselling book When China Rules the World, Martin Jacques writes that, as a result of China having “torn from the eighteenth century to the twenty-first century in little more than three decades”, it has worked up “a huge ecological deficit of two centuries accumulated in just a few decades”.[8]
Nevertheless, the Chinese people and government have been increasingly focused on ecological issues in recent decades, and environmental protection has become integrated into all levels of policy-making and economic planning.
Part of the reason for this heightened awareness of ecological issues is that China is already experiencing adverse impacts of climate change. According to the World Food Programme, China is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, with up to 200 million people exposed to the effects of droughts and floods.[9] Already tens of thousands have to be evacuated every summer in response to flooding in the Pearl River Delta.[10] High levels of air pollution in the major cities are a serious health issue for the population. China is already experiencing more frequent and intense heat waves due to global warming; Zheng Zhihai, chief forecaster at China’s National Climate Center, observes: “With the intensification of global warming, high-temperature weather in China in recent years has been characterised by its earlier onset, increased frequency, prolonged duration, a wider impact range and increased overall intensity”.[11]
Environmental law expert Barbara Finamore notes that the Communist Party of China (CPC) leadership has accelerated efforts to “transform its economic structure from one reliant on fossil fuel-driven heavy industry and manufacturing to one based on services, innovation, clean energy, and environmental sustainability”.[12] Chinese policy-makers have started to de-emphasise GDP growth and to encourage green development, whereby “living standards continue to rise, but in a way that is much less energy and carbon intensive”.[13] The goal is to construct “an energy and resource efficient, environmentally friendly structure of industries, pattern of growth, and mode of consumption”.[14] In her popular 2013 book The Entrepreneurial State, economist Mariana Mazzucato notes approvingly that China more than any other country is prioritising clean technologies “as part of a strategic vision and long-term commitment to economic growth”.[15]
Early on in his presidency, in July 2013, Xi Jinping outlined his vision in relation to China’s environmental strategy:
“China will respect and protect nature, and accommodate itself to nature’s needs. It will remain committed to the basic state policy of conserving resources and protecting the environment. It will promote green, circular and low-carbon development, and promote ecological progress in every aspect of its effort to achieve economic, political, cultural and social progress. China will also develop a resource-efficient and environmentally friendly geographical layout, industrial structure, mode of production and way of life, and leave to our future generations a working and living environment of blue skies, green fields and clean water.”[16]
Over the course of the last decade, China has become, in the words of former UN under-secretary-general Erik Solheim, the “indispensable country for everything green”,[17] and its “contribution to combatting global climate change is unparalleled”, according to Heymi Bahar, a senior analyst at the International Energy Agency (IEA).[18]
Renewable energy
The most important component of reducing greenhouse gas emissions is to replace fossil fuels with low-carbon energy sources. This means shifting power generation from coal, oil and gas to solar, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal and nuclear, and electrifying travel, industry and heating.
Towards this end, China has announced ambitious long-term targets: to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030, and to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.[19] Announcing these goals at the UN General Assembly in 2020, Xi Jinping explained that “humankind can no longer afford to ignore the repeated warnings of nature and go down the beaten path of extracting resources without investing in conservation, pursuing development at the expense of protection, and exploiting resources without restoration”.[20]
Immediately after the goals were announced, the State Council – China’s top administrative body – introduced a comprehensive ‘1+N’ policy strategy, “comprised of an overarching guideline for reaching the ‘dual carbon’ goals (the ‘1’) and a number of more concrete guidelines and regulations to implement the strategy (the ’N’)”.[21]
The popular online magazine Interesting Engineering notes that “when the Asian superpower set its energy targets in 2020, aiming to achieve peak emissions by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060, most dubbed it ambitious. To support these ‘ambitious’ goals, the government committed to constructing 1,200 GW of renewable capacity by 2030… However, China is now on track to achieve this target a remarkable five years ahead of schedule”.[22]
China’s carbon emissions result from the power and heat sectors (51 percent), industry (28 percent), transport (10 percent) and construction (4 percent).[23] The country has been making remarkable progress in reducing the proportion of fossil fuels in each of these sectors. The government has been working at all levels to “quietly reorganise the entire power sector to support rapid electrification and expansion of renewables”.[24] Through coordinated planning and an unprecedented level of investment, China is on track to peak carbon dioxide emissions well ahead of schedule; indeed current trends indicate that this goal may already have been reached.
According to a detailed analysis by Carbon Brief, China’s emissions could well have peaked in 2023, driven by expanding solar and wind generation, along with declining construction activity.[25] Presenting this analysis, The Economist comments: “It is early days, but if this trend continues, the country’s emissions may never again rise to the levels they did in 2023. In other words, they would have peaked”.[26]
Renewable energy capacity reached around 50 percent of total generation capacity in 2023, surpassing that of coal for the first time. The Financial Times editorial board reluctantly admits that “China’s state-owned enterprises, often seen as lumbering giants, are helping to accelerate the adoption of clean tech. Such SOEs, which contribute the lion’s share of China’s gross domestic product, have the resources and backing to develop at scale some of the biggest solar and wind plants, even in remote areas”.[27]
China’s investment in clean energy rose 40 percent year-on-year in 2023, to 890 billion USD. Lauri Myllyvirta, co-founder and lead analyst of the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, observes that this investment is “almost as large as total global investments in fossil fuel supply in 2023”.[28] Interestingly, Myllyvirta’s analysis indicates that renewable energy was the largest driver of China’s economic growth for the year, accounting for 40 percent of GDP increase.
China has taken a significant lead in the area of solar photovoltaic (PV) power generation. This technology is based on converting sunlight directly into electricity. British environmentalist and new energy expert Chris Goodall provides a helpful overview of the physics of solar PV:
We can think of photons of light from the sun as nothing more than pulses of energy. Solar panels work by capturing this energy. Each pulse can dislodge an electron in the panel and give it the extra energy to cross a one-way junction between two thin layers of silicon (or other constituents). This creates a negative charge, adding to the electrical gradient between the two layers of silicon. If wires are attached to the back and front of the panel, the electron will flow back to the layer from which it originally came, creating useful electrical current.[29]
A Bloomberg article from January 2024 reports that China installed more solar panels in 2023 than any other nation has built in total, adding 216.9 gigawatts of capacity. “That’s more than the entire fleet of 175.2 gigawatts in the US”.[30] In the same period, the US added 32 gigawatts – almost seven times less.
Chinese manufacturers dominate the solar panel industry, accounting for over 70 percent of global production. This is a direct result of the government setting clear objectives and policy guidelines which are then implemented at provincial and municipal levels.[31]
In a recent essay titled America Is Losing the Green Tech Race to China, David Wallace-Wells, prominent journalist and author of The Uninhabitable Earth, describes China’s role in the global green-tech supply chain: “China produces 84 percent of the world’s solar modules… It produces 89 percent of the world’s solar cells and 97 percent of its solar wafers and ingots, 86 percent each of its polysilicon and battery cells, 87 percent of its battery cathodes, 96 percent of its battery anodes, 91 percent of its battery electrodes and 85 percent of its battery separators. The list goes on.”[32]
Chinese companies are at the forefront of innovation in the field of renewable energy. In 2023, the world’s largest hydro-solar power plant commenced operations in the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture of Garze, Sichuan. This is primarily a solar power plant but it relies on hydropower to regulate the inherent intermittency of solar energy. The plant “will cover the needs of 700,000 households for a whole year with its annual generating capacity of 2 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh)”.[33]
Meanwhile at the world’s largest solar photovoltaic power plant, in China’s western Qinghai province, researchers have found a way to combine green energy generation with tackling desertification and reducing poverty. Nearly 3,000 meters above sea level, and exposed to extreme levels of solar radiation, it is an area that has experienced significant desertification in recent decades: “By the end of the last century, the desertification rate of the land was as high as 98.5 percent, making the solar panels installed here vulnerable to damage from the sand and gravel stirred up by strong gusts of wind”.[34]
Since the installation of the power plant, grass has been thriving, due to photovoltaic panels reducing wind erosion on the vegetation. Furthermore, in order to maintain the grass and to prevent the proliferation of weeds, sheep have been introduced to the solar park. This has given a major boost to livestock cultivation in the region, with people in the surrounding villages now raising “photovoltaic sheep”. The plant is thus “simultaneously generating electricity while making exemplary contributions to poverty alleviation and ecological conservation efforts”.
In addition to its rapidly expanding solar power capacity, China has also been investing heavily in wind energy, and was responsible for 65 percent of total wind power installation in 2023.[35]
In June 2024, it was announced that Dongfang Electric Corporation, a state-owned manufacturer of power generators, had completed the installation (in Guangdong province) of the world’s first 18-megawatt wind turbine, capable of generating power for 36,000 households per year.[36] Indeed, of the top five global wind turbine manufacturers, four are Chinese.[37] China’s investments in wind power have led to major technological advancements and economies of scale, such that installed wind turbine cost in China is just one-fifth of the equivalent cost in the United States.[38]
Alongside the enormous rollout of renewable energy, China has also been working to reduce its reliance on coal, the carbon dioxide emissions of which are twice as high as for natural gas. The use of coal is currently responsible for around 69 percent of China’s carbon emissions,[39] a reflection of China’s resource endowment: plenty of coal, little oil and little gas.[40]
In the 15-year period from 2007 to 2022, coal’s share of the power mix was reduced from 81 percent to 56 percent,[41] with “the large-scale deployment of wind and solar generation starting to satisfy an increasing share of electricity load growth”.[42] It’s true that China continues to build new coal-fired power plants; however, these are modern, cleaner and more efficient replacements for existing plants. US-based analysts KJ Noh and Michael Wong note that the bulk of China’s coal plants are now advanced supercritical or ultra-supercritical plants, “which means they are much more efficient and cleaner than many of the industrial-era legacy plants of the US”.[43]
Many of the coal plants planned or under construction will act in a reserve capacity to ensure reliability of supply from solar and wind power plants. Indeed plans are underway to convert existing coal-fired plants from baseload generators to reliability reserve generators.[44] That is, coal plants would become “providers of energy security and capacity to meet peaks in electricity demand, and not generate large amounts of electricity”.[45] These coal plants can expect to lie idle the bulk of the time. A 2023 Telegraph article notes that the approval of new coal plants “does not mean what many in the West think it means. China is adding one GW of coal power on average as backup for every six GW of new renewable power. The two go hand in hand”.[46]
Transport
Globally, transport is responsible for around one-fifth of carbon dioxide emissions, and is also a significant contributor to air pollution.
As is widely known, China has quickly become the world leader in the electrification of transport. A BBC article describes how, as a result of two decades of government support, China now has over 95 percent of the world’s electric buses, and as of 2022, 77 percent of all buses in the country are electric, up from 16 percent in 2016.[47] A number of major Chinese cities, including Shenzhen, Tianjin and Guangzhou have already achieved 100 percent bus fleet electrification.
In high-speed rail (HSR), China is far out in front, with more high-speed rail miles than the rest of the world combined. Although it only started its HSR rollout in 2008, China now has over 40,000 km. Spain, in second place, has 3,661 km. The US has 735 and Britain has 113.[48] The length of China’s HSR network is expected to reach 70,000 km by 2035.[49]
Chinese electric cars make up 60 percent of worldwide sales, up from 0.1 percent in 2012.[50] An analysis by Carbon Brief reveals that China’s production of electric vehicles grew 36 percent year-on-year in 2023.[51] Regulations are being introduced that will effectively phase out fossil fuel-based cars in the next few years.[52] Almost 50 percent of new car registrations in China are for electric vehicles (EVs), and this number is rising rapidly. For comparison, EV market penetration in the US stands at just 8 percent as of 2024. To go with these electric cars, there is also a growing network of 2.7 million electric vehicle charging stations.[53]
Global cost reduction
China is investing in renewable energy at such a scale as to bring costs down globally. A BBC News report notes that “wind and solar power are booming in China and may help limit global carbon emissions far faster than expected” and that “solar panel installations alone are growing at a pace that would increase global capacity by 85 percent by 2025”.[54] According to a Carbon Brief analysis, solar prices fell by 42 percent in 2023, and battery prices by 50 percent. “This, in turn, has encouraged much faster take-up of clean-energy technologies”.[55] Over the course of the last decade, global solar PV costs have gone down by more than 80 percent, and wind generation by 60 percent, “in large part due to China’s innovation, engineering and manufacturing”.[56]
The drop in renewable prices provides an important boost for the global green transition – “ever-cheaper solar power is a tailwind for the global energy transition”.[57] Kevin Tu, of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, remarks: “If the Chinese manufacturers had not brought down the cost of panels by more than 95 percent, we could not see so many installations across the world”.[58]
China is thus making a massive contribution to making the global green transition viable. Even the Financial Times editorial board accepts that, “when it comes to climate change, Beijing’s green advances should be seen as positive for China, and for the world”.[59] Fatih Birol, executive director of the International Energy Agency, assesses that “China’s provision of services and support to other countries has significantly improved the accessibility of clean energy technologies and reduced the global cost of using green technologies”.[60]
Unfortunately not everyone sees things that way. The US government announced in May 2024 a new raft of tariffs against Chinese green technology, including a 100 percent tariff on electric vehicles (EVs), a 50 percent tariff on solar cells, and a 25 percent tariff on lithium-ion batteries. Presented as a means of curbing China’s unfair trading practices and boosting the US’s domestic manufacturing, the tariffs self-evidently form part of the broader New Cold War and are an example of President Biden appearing to get “tough on China” in advance of November’s presidential elections. Such “toughness” is a bipartisan consensus in the US: Donald Trump responded to Biden’s 100 percent tariffs by promising tariffs of 200 percent if he is elected.[61]
A Forbes article notes: “Most analysts tend to concur that in the medium- and long-term, a trade war with China isn’t in America’s best interests… With the US many years behind China both in terms of EV development and renewable energy manufacturing, experts said they found it unlikely that simply buying more time would help spur the nation’s — and the world’s – all-important drive away from fossil fuels, which the scientific community has repeatedly said is essential if humanity is to avoid catastrophic warming.”[62]
This highlights the stupidity and short-sightedness of the US’s escalating “climate trade war” with China. In the name of suppressing China’s economic and technological rise, the US political leadership (both Democrat and Republican) is sabotaging the US’s own green transition. As Marxist economist Michael Roberts points out:
China has scaled up its green industries rapidly. It now produces nearly 80 precent of the world’s solar PV modules, 60 percent of wind turbines and 60 percent of electric vehicles and batteries. In 2023 alone, its solar-power capacity grew by more than the total installed capacity in the US… The cost [of Biden’s tariffs] to the US economy and the profitability of US industry will be considerable, and even more to the real incomes of Americans.[63]
The FT describes the US’s climate trade war as “a blow to the green transition at home and potentially abroad” since, “with households already pressed by the high cost of living, lower prices for EVs and solar panels now look like a missed opportunity”.[64] A further FT article notes that both Europe and the US “will face a mammoth task in creating a new clean tech supply chain that excludes China”.[65] Prices for green energy products and materials will increase, and “it might be very difficult to really scale things up fast, because of the fact that you can’t tap into that Chinese expertise”.[66]
US politicians have been talking incessantly about China’s “overcapacity” in solar PV and electric vehicle production,[67] but it is perfectly obvious that no such overcapacity exists in the green industry. As Erik Solheim remarks: “We have all called for many more high-quality green products from everyone, from China, from Europe, from the US, from everyone. Why start blaming China for doing what is expected from everyone?”[68]
One glaring irony of the situation is that US and EU tariffs will have minimal impact on China’s exports, as it can find growing markets elsewhere in the world. The real losers will be ordinary people in North America and Europe.
All countries, and developed countries in particular, face a critical challenge of decarbonising their economies, and it will be impossible to meet that challenge without intense global cooperation. As a white paper from China’s State Council Information Office, China’s Green Development in the New Era, puts it: “Protecting the environment and countering climate change are the common responsibilities of all countries. Only when all countries unite and work together to promote green and sustainable development can we maintain the overall balance in the earth’s ecology and protect humanity’s one and only home.”[69]
Going nuclear
Nuclear energy is not generally considered as being renewable, since it relies on precursors such as uranium, the supply of which is finite. Nonetheless, uranium is a very common element and there is enough of it available to meet demand for centuries into the future, given that “1 kg of uranium contains the same amount of energy as 2.7 million kg of coal.”[70] Furthermore nuclear energy is far cleaner than fossil fuels: its does not emit greenhouse gases nor cause air pollution, although as a 2021 article for Deutsche Welle points out, the extraction, transportation and processing of uranium does produce emissions.[71]
Nuclear energy is however highly controversial, and public perception of it is coloured by the notorious nuclear accidents in Three Mile Island (1979), Chernobyl (1986) and Fukushima (2011).[72] Many environmentalists reject the idea of nuclear having a long-term role to play in meeting humanity’s energy needs, due to the risk of accidents and of radioactive waste leaking and contaminating water and soil; uranium-235 after all has a half-life of over 700 million years. Meanwhile, much of the peace movement rejects nuclear energy due to the potential for nuclear weapons proliferation: “nuclear power and nuclear weapons industries share a common technological basis and are mutually beneficial”.[73] There are also legitimate concerns that enriched uranium or plutonium could fall into the hands of terrorist groups.
Controversy notwithstanding, nuclear power currently makes a significant contribution to the energy mix in many countries, and in the words of British environmentalist Mike Berners-Lee, “anyone taking a firm anti-nuclear stance needs to have a coherent plan for the low carbon future without it”.[74] Nuclear power is the main source of electricity in France (in no small measure a manifestation of its neocolonial relationship with Niger, which has provided much of the uranium); “as a result, France has about half the carbon emissions per head of the OECD as a whole”.[75] According to the International Energy Agency, global nuclear power capacity will have to double by 2050 if humanity is to reach the net zero goals agreed by the UN.[76]
Hannah Ritchie opines that “one of the biggest misconceptions is that nuclear power is unsafe. In fact, it’s one of the safest sources of energy.” She goes on to note that that the death toll from the Chernobyl disaster – incorporating direct deaths and potential deaths from cancer cases caused by the radiation – is under 400. “Every one of those deaths is tragic, but they’re much fewer than most imagine, especially given the fact that this was the worst nuclear disaster in history and is unlikely to be repeated.” As such, she considers that nuclear energy is “hundreds, if not thousands, of times safer” than fossil fuels.[77] David Wallace-Wells makes a similar point in his popular 2019 book, The Uninhabitable Earth: “Already, more than 10,000 people die from air pollution daily. That is considerably more each day than the total number of people who have ever been affected by the meltdowns of nuclear reactors.”[78]
Nuclear energy is a costly option in most parts of the world, not least because many countries have divested from it in recent decades. China however has continued to consider nuclear an important part of its strategy for both energy security and reducing emissions. As such, China has “plans to generate an eye-popping amount of nuclear energy, quickly and at relatively low cost”, with a view to building over 150 new reactors in the next 15 years, “more than the rest of the world has built in the past 35”.[79] Nuclear could play a particularly important role in replacing coal-fired plants. The Financial Times observes that “policymakers in Beijing believe nuclear power can help replace coal-fired plants, which are still the main source of China’s electricity despite a rapid growth in renewables”.[80]
China is leading research into nuclear power, including fourth-generation reactors, the first of which was connected to the grid in December 2021.[81] Fourth-generation reactors promise to be significantly safer and to produce far less radioactive waste than earlier nuclear technology.[82] A recent report by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation found that the US is 10 to 15 years behind China in rolling out next-generation reactors, the result of China’s “coherent national strategy to develop nuclear power”.[83] Between 2008 to 2023, China’s share of nuclear energy-related patents increased from 1.3 percent to 13.4 percent.[84]
China is at the forefront of research into thorium-based nuclear power generation,[85] which is widely considered to be both cleaner and safer than its uranium-based counterpart: thorium is three times as abundant as uranium, produces far less nuclear waste, and is much more difficult to convert into nuclear weapons. According to Kailash Agarwal of the International Atomic Energy Agency, “because of its abundance and its fissile material breeding capability, thorium could potentially offer a long-term solution to humanity’s energy needs”.[86]
China is also among the world leaders in the effort to generate energy through nuclear fusion,[87] which has the potential to some day generate unlimited, safe, emissions-free and radioactive waste-free power: “Nuclear fusion could eventually provide a virtually unlimited source of power that is carbon free and which does not pose the same safety and security issues as nuclear fission”.[88]
Green Belt and Road
The fruits of Chinese investment in green energy are being reaped beyond the borders of the People’s Republic, with Chinese companies supplying renewable energy infrastructure around the world, particularly the countries of the Global South. The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in particular “provides an opportunity to export green technology across Central Asia and Africa”.[89]
Addressing the UN General Assembly in September 2021, Xi Jinping announced that China will not build any new coal-fired power plants overseas, and would increase its support for developing countries to pursue green and low-carbon development.[90] Since then, China’s investment in renewable energy projects along the Belt and Road has increased substantially. According to an analysis by Energy Monitor, in the first half of 2023, 41 percent of BRI energy engagement went to solar and wind power, compared with 25 percent in the first half of 2020.[91] In 2013, renewable energy only constituted 19 percent of energy financing under the BRI.[92]
Chinese financing for renewable power generation now accounts for the large majority of Chinese-financed overseas power generation capacity. Ma Xinyue of Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center opines that “by combining rapid phase-out of coal finance across the world and facilitating the world’s energy and economic transition, China has the opportunity to assume international climate leadership during an absolutely critical time”.[93]
Environmentally-friendly projects developed within the framework of the BRI include a 123MW solar plant in South Africa that will provide electricity to over 80,000 households;[94] Noor Abu Dhabi – the world’s largest single-site solar power plant;[95] the ‘Whoosh’ high-speed railway – Indonesia’s first high-speed railway, connecting Jakarta to Bandung;[96] the Tabarjal 400MW solar power plant in Saudi Arabia;[97] the enormous Quaid-e-Azam Solar Power Park in Pakistan;[98] Latin America’s largest solar plant, Cauchari Solar Park in Argentina;[99] Zambia’s largest hydropower plant, the Kafue Gorge Lower Hydropower Station;[100] a 1,000 MW floating solar plant in Zimbabwe;[101] a 50 MW wind power plant in Namibia;[102] and many more.
Interviewed by Global Times in June 2024, Erik Solheim discusses his experiences living in Kenya for several years and witnessing the construction by Chinese companies of the Mombasa-Nairobi railroad. “It is the cleanest and most well-functioning transport system in Kenya. It’s an absolute, wonderful, green contribution to Africa”.[103]
Nigerian journalist Otiato Opali writes that “from the Sakai photovoltaic power station in the Central African Republic and the Garissa solar plant in Kenya, to the Aysha wind power project in Ethiopia and the Kafue Gorge hydroelectric station in Zambia, China has implemented hundreds of clean energy, green development projects in Africa, supporting the continent’s efforts to tackle climate change”.[104] Tony Tiyou, CEO of clean energy company Renewables in Africa, adds: “China is clearly showing some leadership here, and they should be commended for that”.[105]
China is also supporting Cuba’s bid to generate 24 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030, and Cuba has joined the China-initiated Belt and Road Energy Partnership.[106]
Ecological civilisation and the role of socialism
In the US, Britain and elsewhere, governments make empty promises around renewable energy and carbon efficiency, whilst taking precious little meaningful action. Indeed they maintain fossil fuel subsidies, expand drilling for oil and gas, impose tariffs and sanctions on Chinese solar panels and EVs, and engage in ecologically ruinous military activities. Meanwhile, the capitalist class attempts to shift responsibility away from itself and on to individual consumers, who are expected to reduce their domestic energy consumption, to avoid flying, to recycle, to take shorter showers, to drive electric cars, to eat less meat and so on. The crisis is thereby, in typical neoliberal fashion, individualised, and the capitalist class is absolved of all responsibility and blame.
The balance of power in capitalist countries is such that even relatively progressive governments (where these exist) find it difficult to prioritise long-term needs of the population over short-term interests of capital.
Economic anthropologist Jason Hickel writes: “The past half-century is littered with milestones of inaction. A scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change first began to form in the mid-1970s… The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted in 1992 to set non-binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions. International climate summits – the UN Congress of Parties – have been held annually since 1995 to negotiate plans for emissions reductions. The UN framework has been extended three times, with the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, the Copenhagen Accord in 2009, and the Paris Agreement in 2015. And yet global CO2 emissions continue to rise year after year, while ecosystems unravel at a deadly pace.”[107]
China is still a developing country, but it has become the clear global leader in environmental protection. It is the world’s first renewable energy superpower. The government is not shifting responsibility to individuals, but promoting coordinated action at all levels of government and society.
It is important to understand why it is China, rather than any other major country, that is leading the way in the struggle to prevent climate breakdown; why it is China systematically pursuing an environmental action plan that goes beyond the wildest dreams of Western environmentalists; why it is China that is “building a society in which everyone pursues ecological progress all the time, everywhere, and in everything they do.”[108]
As John Bellamy Foster observes: “While China has made moves to implement its radical conception of ecological civilisation, which is built into state planning and regulation, the notion of a Green New Deal has taken concrete form nowhere in the West. It is merely a slogan at this point without any real political backing within the system. It was talked about by progressive forces and then rejected by the powers that be.”[109]
Mike Berners-Lee has written that, “more than in most countries, if a policy idea is seen as a good thing, the Chinese can bring it about”.[110] This could be interpreted as a trope about China’s putative authoritarianism, but it reflects a profoundly important reality: China’s crucial advantage is its political system. As Xi Jinping puts it, China has “the political advantage of pooling resources to solve major problems”,[111] and this in turn is a manifestation of the location of political power in the working people led by the CPC. The government’s goals are the masses’ goals, and hence the pursuit of a Beautiful China and the fight against climate breakdown can be prioritised, just as the fights against poverty and Covid-19 have been.
China has raced ahead in renewable energy, energy efficiency, electric vehicles, afforestation and ‘circular’ waste management because it has identified those sectors as being absolutely crucial for the future of not only China but the world. As such, it has built environmental considerations into the core of its planning system and has targeted public investment accordingly.
What’s more, China’s enormous investments have largely been made by state banks, and many of its key projects carried out by state-owned enterprises, according to strategic guidelines laid out by the government. This is possible because of the basic structure and planned nature of the Chinese economy. Which is to say, the fundamental reason China has emerged as the undisputed leader in the fight against climate breakdown is its socialist system. However, the results of China’s progress are already having a global impact, as described above. The whole world, and particularly developing countries, can benefit from China’s innovations in renewable energy and electric transport. And for those of us in the advanced capitalist countries, where political power is dominated by a decaying and aggressive bourgeoisie, China’s example can be used to help create mass pressure to stop our governments and ruling classes from destroying the planet, and to encourage sensible cooperation with China on environmental issues.
[1] H Ritchie, Not the End of the World How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet. Chatto & Windus, London, 2024, p28
[2] L Krauss, The Physics of Climate Change, Head of Zeus Ltd, London, 2021, pp 27-35
[3] China overtakes US as world’s biggest CO2 emitter, The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2007/jun/19/china.usnews
[4] EU climate chief: China must help fund rescue of poorer nations hit by disaster, The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/nov/26/eu-climate-chief-china-fund-rescue-poorer-nations-cop28
[5] G20 pledge to take climate action criticised for ‘lacking ambition’, The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/31/g20-pledge-to-take-climate-action-criticised-for-lacking-ambition
[6] CO2 emissions (metric tons per capita), World Bank. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/EN.ATM.CO2E.PC
[7] S Evans, Analysis: Which countries are historically responsible for climate change?, Carbon Brief. https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-which-countries-are-historically-responsible-for-climate-change/
[8] M Jacques, When China Rules the World: The End of the Western World and the Birth of a New Global Order. 2. ed., Penguin Books, New York, 2012, p179
[9] China, World Food Program. https://www.wfp.org/countries/china
[10] Tens of thousands evacuated from massive China floods, BBC News. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp0gd5ezj9lo
[11] Heat waves have intensified in recent decades, China Daily. https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202406/17/WS666f9024a31095c51c509341.html
[12] B Finamore, Will China Save the Planet?, Polity, Cambridge, 2018, p28
[13] N Hirst, The Energy Conundrum: Climate Change, Global Prosperity, and the Tough Decisions We Have to Make, World Scientific, New Jersey, 2018, p74
[14] Z Wang et al, The Ecological Civilization Debate in China, Monthly Review. https://monthlyreview.org/2014/11/01/the-ecological-civilization-debate-in-china/
[15] M Mazzucato, The Entrepreneurial State: Debunking Public vs Private Sector Myths, Penguin Books, London, 2018, p181
[16] Leave to Our Future Generations Blue Skies, Green Fields and Clean Water, Qiushi. http://en.qstheory.cn/2020-12/14/c_607615.htm
[17] Narrative of ‘overcapacity’ is a complete failure: former UN under-secretary-general, Global Times. https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202406/1313926.shtml
[18] IEA expert: China is second to none in photovoltaic, wind power and hydropower, China News. https://www.chinanews.com.cn/cj/2024/06-11/10232179.shtml
[19] Climate change: China aims for ‘carbon neutrality by 2060’, BBC News. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-54256826
[20] Full text: Statement by Xi Jinping at General Debate of 75th UNGA, China Daily. https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202009/23/WS5f6a640ba31024ad0ba7b1e7.html
[21] Z Wang, K Sandholt, How China’s energy system can reach carbon neutrality before 2055, Carbon Brief. https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-how-chinas-energy-system-can-reach-carbon-neutrality-before-2055/
[22] China breaks 2023 record, tops solar capacity than rest of the world, Interesting Engineering. https://interestingengineering.com/energy/china-breaks-2023-record-tops-solar-capacity-than-rest-of-the-world
[23] Promoting low-carbon energy transition will provide strong impetus for realization of ‘dual-carbon’ goals, CGTN. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2023-07-07/Low-carbon-energy-transition-to-underpin-realization-of-dual-carbon–1lf9Uzqj6bm/index.html
[24] China leads global renewables race with record-breaking 230 GW installations in 2023, Wood Mackenzie. https://www.woodmac.com/press-releases/china-leader-in-renewables/
[25] L Myllyvirta, Analysis: Monthly drop hints that China’s CO2 emissions may have peaked in 2023, Carbon Brief. https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-monthly-drop-hints-that-chinas-co2-emissions-may-have-peaked-in-2023/
[26] Has China reached peak emissions?, The Economist. https://www.economist.com/china/2024/05/30/has-china-reached-peak-emissions
[27] China’s striking advances in green technology, Financial Times. https://www.ft.com/content/d90f4b4e-0ca7-49d2-8437-7d567f6edabf
[28] L Myllyvirta, Analysis: Clean energy was top driver of China’s economic growth in 2023, Carbon Brief. https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-clean-energy-was-top-driver-of-chinas-economic-growth-in-2023/
[29] C Goodall, The Switch, Profile Books, London, 2016, p83
[30] China Added More Solar Panels in 2023 Than US Did In Its Entire History, Bloomberg News. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-26/china-added-more-solar-panels-in-2023-than-us-did-in-its-entire-history
[31] China solar panel glut squeezes European suppliers as prices plunge, Nikkei Asia. https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Energy/China-solar-panel-glut-squeezes-European-suppliers-as-prices-plunge
[32] D Wallace-Wells, America Is Losing the Green Tech Race to China, New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/22/opinion/america-green-tech-trade-war-china.html
[33] World’s largest hydro-solar power station fully operational in China, CGTN. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2023-06-25/World-s-largest-hydro-solar-power-station-officially-operates-in-China-1kV6xfwZ7Pi/index.html
[34] Solar power farms on plateau fuel China’s green energy revolution, Xinhua. https://english.news.cn/20240609/2f984e1bd1204afdbf8b86064b979d29/c.html
[35] Explainer: China’s dominance in wind turbine manufacturing, Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/chinas-dominance-wind-turbine-manufacturing-2024-04-10/
[36] A Paleja, China installs world’s 1st 18 MW wind turbine, can power 36,000 homes yearly, Interesting Engineering. https://interestingengineering.com/energy/18mw-turbine-installed-china
[37] China leads global wind turbine manufacturers’ market share in 2023, Wood Mackenzie. https://www.woodmac.com/press-releases/2024-press-releases/global-wind-oem-marketshare/
[38] H Chik, ‘Historic breakthrough’: China’s installed wind turbine cost drops to one-fifth of the US in green energy race, South China Morning Post. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3257036/historic-breakthrough-chinas-installed-wind-turbine-cost-drops-one-fifth-us-green-energy-race
[39] China: CO2 Country Profile, Our World in Data. https://ourworldindata.org/co2/country/china?country=~CHN#coal-oil-gas-cement-how-much-does-each-contribute-to-co2-emissions
[40] Y Yi, Promoting low-carbon energy transition will provide strong impetus for realization of ‘dual-carbon’ goals, CGTN. https://news.cgtn.com/news/2023-07-07/Low-carbon-energy-transition-to-underpin-realization-of-dual-carbon–1lf9Uzqj6bm/index.html
[41] China to cut coal use share below 56% in 2021, Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-cut-coal-use-share-below-56-2021-2021-04-22/
[42] China dials down coal output to focus on structural reform, Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/china-dials-down-coal-output-focus-structural-reform-kemp-2024-06-20/
[43] KJ Noh, M Wong, China offers solutions to climate change, Asia Times. https://asiatimes.com/2021/11/china-offers-solutions-to-climate-change/
[44] China’s renewables rollout signals future peak in coal, Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/chinas-renewables-rollout-signals-future-peak-coal-kemp-2024-01-19/
[45] Z Wang, K Sandholt, How China’s energy system can reach carbon neutrality before 2055, Carbon Brief. https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-how-chinas-energy-system-can-reach-carbon-neutrality-before-2055/
[46] China’s CO2 emissions may be falling already, in a watershed moment for the world, The Telegraph. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/11/21/chinas-carbon-emissions-falling-xi-jinping-net-zero/
[47] How China’s buses shaped the world’s EV revolution, BBC. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20231206-climate-change-how-chinas-electric-vehicle-revolution-began-with-buses
[48] Length of the high-speed railway lines in operation worldwide in 2022, by country, Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1265995/length-of-highspeed-railway-lines-in-use-worldwide-by-country/
[49] B Jones, Past, present and future: The evolution of China’s incredible high-speed rail network, CNN. https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/china-high-speed-rail-cmd/index.html
[50] D Oxford, Are Chinese electric vehicles taking over the world?, Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/4/20/are-chinese-evs-taking-over-the-car-market
[51] L Myllyvirta, Analysis: Clean energy was top driver of China’s economic growth in 2023, Carbon Brief. https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-clean-energy-was-top-driver-of-chinas-economic-growth-in-2023/
[52] E Huang, China’s making it super hard to build car factories that don’t make electric vehicles, Quartz. https://qz.com/1500793/chinas-banning-new-factories-that-only-make-fossil-fuel-cars
[53] Huawei rolls out ultrafast EV chargers in China, taking on Tesla, Nikkei Asia. https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/Electric-cars-in-China/Huawei-rolls-out-ultrafast-EV-chargers-in-China-taking-on-Tesla
[54] Climate change: China’s green power surge offers hope on warming, BBC News. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-66043485
[55] L Myllyvirta, Analysis: Clean energy was top driver of China’s economic growth in 2023, Carbon Brief. https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-clean-energy-was-top-driver-of-chinas-economic-growth-in-2023/
[56] C Hemingway Jaynes, China Installed More Solar Panels Last Year Than the U.S. Has in Total, EcoWatch. https://www.ecowatch.com/china-new-solar-capacity-2023.html
[57] Cheap solar gives desalination its moment in the sun, Financial Times. https://www.ft.com/content/bb01b510-2c64-49d4-b819-63b1199a7f26
[58] K Bradsher, How China Came to Dominate the World in Solar Energy, New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/07/business/china-solar-energy-exports.html
[59] China’s striking advances in green technology, Financial Times. https://www.ft.com/content/d90f4b4e-0ca7-49d2-8437-7d567f6edabf
[60] Hyping ‘overcapacity’ in China is the real threat to world, Global Times. https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202404/1311459.shtml
[61] D Wallace-Wells, America Is Losing the Green Tech Race to China, New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/22/opinion/america-green-tech-trade-war-china.html
[62] D Vetter, Biden’s China Trade War: Could It Threaten The Green Transition?, Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidrvetter/2024/05/21/bidens-china-trade-war-could-it-threaten-the-green-transition/
[63] Fixing the climate – it just ain’t profitable, Michael Roberts Blog. https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2024/06/23/fixing-the-climate-it-just-aint-profitable/
[64] A misguided move on Chinese tariffs, Financial Times. https://www.ft.com/content/56685c0b-1bdd-43a5-b039-7bb2cb7c7f87
[65] E White, How China cornered the market for clean tech, Financial Times. https://www.ft.com/content/6d2ed4d3-c6d3-4dbd-8566-3b0df9e9c5c6
[66] S Schonhardt, China Invests $546 Billion in Clean Energy, Far Surpassing the US, Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/china-invests-546-billion-in-clean-energy-far-surpassing-the-u-s/
[67] Yellen pushes for joint G7 response to China’s industrial overcapacity, Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/markets/yellen-says-us-europe-must-respond-jointly-chinas-industrial-overcapacity-2024-05-21/
[68] Narrative of ‘overcapacity’ is a complete failure: former UN under-secretary-general, Global Times. https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202406/1313926.shtml
[69] China’s Green Development in the New Era, The State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China. http://english.scio.gov.cn/node_9000497.html
[70] What is nuclear energy (and why is it considered a clean energy)?, National Grid. https://www.nationalgrid.com/stories/energy-explained/what-nuclear-energy-and-why-it-considered-clean-energy
[71] Fact check: Is nuclear energy good for the climate?, Deutsche Welle. https://www.dw.com/en/fact-check-is-nuclear-energy-good-for-the-climate/a-59853315
[72] Fukushima disaster: What happened at the nuclear plant?, BBC News, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-56252695.
[73] No to Nuclear Power, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. https://cnduk.org/campaigns/no-nuclear-power/
[74] M Berners-Lee, There Is No Plan(et) B: A Handbook for the Make or Break Years, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2019, p73
[75] Neil Hirst, The Energy Conundrum: Climate Change, Global Prosperity, and the Tough Decisions We Have to Make, World Scientific Publishing, Singapore, 2018, p132
[76] E White, Xi’s climate goals boost China’s nuclear industry, Financial Times. https://www.ft.com/content/af88f874-69b2-478e-9d33-ad3b31468258
[77] H Ritchie, op cit, p62
[78] D Wallace-Wells. The Uninhabitable Earth: A Story of the Future. Allen Lane, London, 2019, p101
[79] China’s Climate Goals Hinge on a $440 Billion Nuclear Buildout, Bloomberg, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-11-02/china-climate-goals-hinge-on-440-billion-nuclear-power-plan-to-rival-u-s
[80] E White, Xi’s climate goals boost China’s nuclear industry, Financial Times. https://www.ft.com/content/af88f874-69b2-478e-9d33-ad3b31468258
[81] China Starts Up First Fourth-Generation Nuclear Reactor, Power, https://www.powermag.com/china-starts-up-first-fourth-generation-nuclear-reactor/
[82] A Shen, How China hopes to play a leading role in developing next-generation nuclear reactors, South China Morning Post, https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/2181396/how-china-hopes-play-leading-role-developing-next-generation
[83] US falling far behind China in nuclear power, report says, Al Jazeera. https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/6/17/us-falling-far-behind-china-in-nuclear-power-report-says
[84] S Ezell, How Innovative Is China in Nuclear Power?, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. https://itif.org/publications/2024/06/17/how-innovative-is-china-in-nuclear-power/
[85] ‘Green light’ given for first thorium molten salt nuclear reactor in China, Interesting Engineering. https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/thorium-molten-salt-nuclear-reactor-china
[86] Thorium’s Long-Term Potential in Nuclear Energy: New IAEA Analysis, International Atomic Energy Agency. https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/thoriums-long-term-potential-in-nuclear-energy-new-iaea-analysis
[87] B Turner, China’s $1 trillion ‘artificial sun’ fusion reactor just got five times hotter than the sun, Live Science. https://www.livescience.com/chinas-1-trillion-artificial-sun-fusion-reactor-just-got-five-times-hotter-than-the-sun
[88] N Hirst, op cit, p141
[89] C Campbell, Why an Unlikely Hero Like China Could End Up Leading the World in the Fight Against Climate Change, Time. https://time.com/4800747/china-climate-change-paris-agreement-trump/
[90] S Yi, China to stop building new coal power projects overseas, Dialogue Earth. https://dialogue.earth/en/energy/china-to-stop-building-new-coal-power-projects-overseas/
[91] P Bindman, 2023 is the China Belt and Road Initiative’s greenest year ever, Energy Monitor. https://www.energymonitor.ai/policy/weekly-data-2023-is-the-china-belt-and-road-initiatives-greenest-year-ever/
[92] China Belt & Road Initiative brings in 128 GW installed power capacity in 10 years, Wood Mackenzie. https://www.woodmac.com/press-releases/china-belt-and-road-10-years-on/
[93] X Ma, China’s shifting overseas energy footprint, Dialogue Earth. https://dialogue.earth/en/energy/chinas-shifting-overseas-energy-footprint/
[94] Chinese Company Expands Footprint in South Africa’s Energy Sector With New Solar Project, China Global South Project. https://chinaglobalsouth.com/2023/08/21/chinese-company-expands-footprint-in-south-africas-energy-sector-with-new-solar-project/
[95] Noor Abu Dhabi completes second year of commercial operations, Energy Connects. https://www.energyconnects.com/news/renewables/2021/may/noor-abu-dhabi-completes-second-year-of-commercial-operations/
[96] China Belt and Road: Indonesia opens Whoosh high-speed railway, BBC News. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-66979810
[97] China’s Jinko to build 400MW solar power plant in Saudi Arabia, Investment Monitor. https://www.investmentmonitor.ai/news/jinko-to-build-solar-power-plant-saudi-arabia-investment-china/?cf-view
[98] China helps Pakistan build world’s largest solar farm, Dialogue Earth. https://dialogue.earth/en/energy/8160-china-helps-pakistan-build-world-s-largest-solar-farm/
[99] Solar complex of 300 MW in Argentina goes live, Renewables Now. https://renewablesnow.com/news/solar-complex-of-300-mw-in-argentina-goes-live-715088/
[100] Construction of Chinese-built hydropower plant in Zambia nears completion, Xinhua. https://english.news.cn/20220722/4ffbe59cea84447a84b018d2b49d6f3f/c.html
[101] China Energy plans 1000 MW floating solar plant in Zimbabwe, Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/china-energy-plans-1000-mw-floating-solar-plant-zimbabwe-2023-03-27/
[102] Namibian-Chinese joint venture to build 50 MW wind power plant, Xinhua. https://english.news.cn/20230418/39c74571e4e0496bacbf2532914a9a6b/c.html
[103] Narrative of ‘overcapacity’ is a complete failure: former UN under-secretary-general, Global Times. https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202406/1313926.shtml
[104] O Opali, China’s clean energy investments growing rapidly in Africa, China Daily. https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202208/30/WS630d6e5da310fd2b29e74f5e.html
[105] K Bartlett, Why China Is Investing in Africa’s Green Energy Future, VoA. https://www.voanews.com/a/why-china-is-investing-in-africa-s-green-energy-future/7077274.html
[106] Unlocking US Sanctions: China Signs Construction & Energy Deals With Cuba, Silk Road Briefing. https://mronline.org/2022/01/07/unlocking-u-s-sanctions/
[107] J Hickel, Less is More: How Degrowth Will Save the World, Random House, United Kingdom, 2020, p20
[108] Building a Beautiful China: Promoting Harmony Between Humanity and Nature, Qiushi. http://en.qstheory.cn/2024-03/11/c_968316.htm
[109] Why is the great project of Ecological Civilization specific to China?, Monthly Review. https://mronline.org/2022/10/01/why-is-the-great-project-of-ecological-civilization-specific-to-china/
[110] M Berners-Lee, op cit, p213
[111] Xi stresses unswerving support for development of private enterprises, Xinhua. http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-11/02/c_137575231.htm
