Ganesh Tailor, writing in People’s Voice, newspaper of the Communist Party of Canada, argues that China’s success in tackling the climate crisis stems from its socialist system and long-term planning:
China’s Five-Year Plans allow for the massive, state-led mobilisation of resources with long-term sustainable goals in mind. These initiatives, necessary for the common good, have led to the PRC’s rise as the world leader in solar panel production and installation and its dominance in wind and hydroelectric projects, along with rapid expansions in electric vehicles and high-speed rail.
Ganesh observes that Chinese innovations around sustainable development are having a global impact, particularly in the Global South:
Through the Belt-and-Road Initiative, Global South countries have received loans to build green infrastructure and develop their sovereign economies without having to concede to structural adjustment or austerity programs, as infamously required by the IMF and World Bank. Instead, China has worked with Pakistan and Zambia to build solar farms, Ethiopia and South Africa to build wind turbines, and Laos and Ecuador to build hydroelectric dams – to name only a few. These projects enable partner countries to diversify their energy sources, especially away from fossil fuels, and strengthen their sovereignty through economic growth and stability.
While the US imposes a criminal blockade on Cuba, “China has donated solar farms, along with at least 70 tons of power generator parts and accessories to aid in Cuba’s energy grid’s robustness. China has additionally provided significant financing for solar infrastructure, with projections for solar powering two-thirds of present-day Cuban demand by 2028.” The article continues:
A stabilized power grid directly translates to a better quality of life for everyday Cubans. Solar farms reduce the frequency and duration of blackouts and free up foreign currency, otherwise spent on oil, to be spent on crucial resources like food and medicine imports. Partnership with the PRC in energy diversification away from imperialist-led fossil fuel hegemony bolsters Cuba’s ability to serve its people and continue defending its hard-fought revolution.
Ganesh concludes that capitalism cannot resolve the climate crisis, as profit-driven systems inherently obstruct real solutions. China’s achievements demonstrate that socialism offers the only viable path to a collective, internationalist, and sustainable future.
We are living through the prime existential threat facing life on this planet. The climate crisis is an undeniable reality born from the inherent contradictions of capitalism. The profit motive and its ecological impacts in development are increasingly borne by the planet and its peoples. We are continually told of supposed “solutions” that are, in reality, nothing more than greenwashing and toothless accords meant to at best manage decline, and at worst open new carbon markets.
Despite the ruthless propaganda emanating from the worst offenders in Washington and Ottawa, the People’s Republic of China, under the leadership of the Communist Party, is demonstrating the superiority of centralized and long-term economic planning to tackle this global challenge.
Setting the record straight
We must first address a half-truth which continues to echo off liberal walls that China is the world’s biggest polluter. China indeed has the highest absolute emissions of any country. But that is the half-truth. The other half requires us to ask where these emissions come from.
The PRC, with a population over 1.4 billion, will unsurprisingly have high yearly emissions. On a per capita basis, however, China’s first-place position tumbles well below that of the US and Canada.
Neither can we omit the historical record of obscene fossil fuel emissions on which the US and its partners in imperialism built their empire. These advanced capitalist countries accumulated and continue to accumulate a vast climate debt to the order of 60-86 percent of historical emissions and therefore have a primary responsibility to lead and support sustainable transition.
Conversely, China’s development is recent and while its share of cumulative emissions has risen to between 1-15 percent, it has supported one-eighth of the world’s population and produced a large part of those emissions in its role as the “workshop of the world” which manufactures a significant bulk of goods consumed outside its borders. Emissions from these imports are embodied in the toys, tools and electronics we conveniently find on the shelves of the nearest store.
Judging China as identical or worse based on the absolute emissions of today obscures the West’s centuries of far harsher and cumulative damage.
Domestic and internationalist green transition
Unlike the anarchy of production and pursuit of quarterly profits inherent to capitalism, China’s Five-Year Plans allow for the massive, state-led mobilization of resources with long-term sustainable goals in mind. These initiatives, necessary for the common good, have led to the PRC’s rise as the world leader in solar panel production and installation and its dominance in wind and hydroelectric projects, along with rapid expansions in electric vehicles and high-speed rail.
While admirable, these efforts cannot transform China’s energy landscape overnight. Coal, one of the dirtiest fossil fuels, still dominates the energy mix powering China, along with oil. However, the recent and massive uptick in development and instalment of renewable energy cannot be ignored. Installing more wind turbines and solar panels than the rest of the world combined makes it a safe bet to predict a monumental shift in China’s energy use patterns.
Chinese infrastructure initiatives do not halt at their border. Through the Belt-and-Road Initiative, Global South countries have received loans to build green infrastructure and develop their sovereign economies without having to concede to structural adjustment or austerity programs, as infamously required by the IMF and World Bank. Instead, China has worked with Pakistan and Zambia to build solar farms, Ethiopia and South Africa to build wind turbines, and Laos and Ecuador to build hydroelectric dams – to name only a few. These projects enable partner countries to diversify their energy sources, especially away from fossil fuels, and strengthen their sovereignty through economic growth and stability.
Cuba’s energy sovereignty
The 65-year-long economic war waged by the US against Cuba has been a suffocating siege designed with explicit and genocidal intent. Cuba’s energy sector has been a primary target of US imperialist aggression, preventing access to fuel, technology and spare parts for its Soviet-era energy grids. The resulting struggle is borne by all of Cuba, with the people enduring blackouts and fuel shortages impacting homes, refrigerators, hospitals and production.
To bolster Cuba’s energy sector is a much-needed lifeline. China has not merely sold technology or provided loans; it has donated solar farms, along with at least 70 tons of power generator parts and accessories to aid in Cuba’s energy grid’s robustness. China has additionally provided significant financing for solar infrastructure, with projections for solar powering two-thirds of present-day Cuban demand by 2028.
Oil can be sanctioned. The sun? Not so much. Every megawatt of Chinese-built solar energy is a megawatt out of reach of the US blockade. These projects are building Cuba’s energy sovereignty from the ground up, diversifying sources and making it less dependent on fossil fuel imports which are many times halted by the US.
A stabilized power grid directly translates to a better quality of life for everyday Cubans. Solar farms reduce the frequency and duration of blackouts and free up foreign currency, otherwise spent on oil, to be spent on crucial resources like food and medicine imports. Partnership with the PRC in energy diversification away from imperialist-led fossil fuel hegemony bolsters Cuba’s ability to serve its people and continue defending its hard-fought revolution.
The only way forward: socialism
Capitalism created the climate crisis and is incapable of solving it. Capitalist solutions are built to turn a profit, not reverse climate change. The PRC’s strategy of long-term and centralized planning, along with strategic market utilization, shows Canada and the world a viable path forward. It is important to recognize China’s real advances where it is leading the world towards a necessary and timely green transition – this means rejecting the rabid anti-China narrative pushed by governments and media in Canada.
Combating climate catastrophe means fighting for a public-led and planned green transition in Canada that ensures job growth in the green energy sector. This can only be achieved by shattering the stranglehold power of fossil fuel and natural resource monopolies.
There is no future for our planet and humanity if it continues to be dictated by profit. We need sharpen the struggle for socialism – the only viable future is one that is planned, collective and internationalist.
