Analysis: Clean energy just put China’s CO2 emissions into reverse for first time - Carbon Brief
www.carbonbrief.org
For the first time, the growth in China’s clean power generation has caused the nation’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to fall despite rapid power demand growth.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/22189256

The latest data, for the first quarter of 2025, shows that China’s CO2 emissions have now been stable or falling for more than a year, as shown in the figure below.

However, with emissions remaining just 1% below the recent peak, it remains possible that they could jump once again to a new record high.

Outside of the power sector, emissions increased 3.5%, with the largest rises in the use of coal in the metals and chemicals industries.

Sector-by-sector analysis suggests that, in addition to the power sector, emissions have likely also peaked in the building materials and steel sectors, as well as oil products consumption.

  • stoy@lemmy.zipEnglish
    61·
    2 days ago

    Depends on the location and season, but yeah, I can see that.

    • Valmond@lemmy.worldEnglish
      14·
      2 days ago

      Then we must invent some way of transporting electricity, like cables, pylons or something 😉

      • Jimmycakes@lemmy.worldEnglish
        13·
        2 days ago

        Throw the electricity into the trunk of my car I’ll drive it over to the next town that needs it. Just clear some room next to my backpack

        • Akrenion@slrpnk.netEnglish
          8·
          2 days ago

          You jest but EVs are a great way to compensate over night fluctuations. If we had a grid that supports it and enough EVs charging at home.

          • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
            6·
            2 days ago

            I wish we had smarter chargers for this. While I don’t accept using my battery to reinforce the grid without significant payback, I’m more than willing to dynamically schedule charging.

            Why can’t I set it to “charge to 80% by morning, during times that help the power company”? If enough people do this we should be able to smooth out the overnight load to something consistent and predictable to match whatever generation is online

            • Obi@sopuli.xyzEnglish
              1·
              22 hours ago

              My energy provider in the Netherlands provides something kind of like this, if you install a compatible EV charger it can charge when it’s cheapest (which I assume correlates).

              • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
                1·
                18 hours ago

                Some places here also have time of use metering. However as far as I know it’s old style fixed schedule, like 11p-5am or something.

                This is an opportunity to be a lot more dynamic to help the utility smooth the load better.

                We had time of use metering where I grew up, but at the time the only intelligence we had was a timer. Now we have $50k+ vehicles with an ai computer - it better be capable of more

            • Akrenion@slrpnk.netEnglish
              2·
              2 days ago

              Valid concern but there are very promising results for recycling or restoring lithium batteries. The future might be bright.

              • Valmond@lemmy.worldEnglish
                2·
                1 day ago

                That’s probably the most important part (ecology) but if the battery wears out faster, people well not like that (batteries are expensive).

                But I also do think the future will be bright!