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China Briefing handpicks and explains the most important climate and energy stories from China over the past fortnight. Subscribe for free here.
Key developments
Hottest month in history
RECORD HEAT: July 2024 was China’s “hottest month in observed modern history” (since records began in 1961), in a record coinciding with the world experiencing its hottest day on 22 July, Reuters reported. Every province across the country saw average temperatures for July rise year-on-year, with Guizhou, Yunnan, Hunan, Jiangxi and Zhejiang ranking highest, it said, adding that the record were unusual because “the El Nino climate pattern…ended in April, but temperatures have not abated”. State broadcaster CCTV said on 4 August that several provinces had experienced temperatures between 40-43.9C, warning residents to “reduce” time spent outdoors. Reuters also said that rising temperatures “sharply pushed up demand for power to cool homes and offices” and “stoked fears of damage to rice crops”, adding that the city of Hangzhou “banned all non-essential outdoor lighting and light shows this week to conserve energy”.
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RECORD FLOODS: According to the state-supporting Global Times, China has “experienced 25 numbered flood events” this year, the highest number since records began in 1998. The newspaper said that, according to Ma Jun, director of the Beijing-based Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, “[due to] global climate change, extreme weather events are increasing, which increases the difficulty of forecasting [rainfall and floods]”. Another CCTV report cited the China Meteorological Administration saying that the country experienced two typhoons and recorded “13.3% higher than average” rainfall in July. Typhoon Gaemi killed 30 people and left 35 missing in Zixing, Hunan province, Reuters said. State news agency Xinhua stated that the typhoon also caused “damage” in the coastal provinces of Fujian and Liaoning, affecting 766,900 and 60,000 residents, respectively. Xinhua reported the Chinese government called for “proactive” flood control and for “disaster relief funds [to] be allocated promptly”. The state-sponsored outlet China News said the Ministry of Water Resources issued 649m yuan ($90m) to support “flood relief” in 14 affected provinces.
New renewable energy targets and ‘green electricity’ trading policy
NEW RENEWABLE TARGETS: Regulators published provincial targets for 2024-25 under China’s renewable portfolio standards (RPS) on 2 August, reported China Power. The targets, for the renewable share of electricity supply, increased by more than 3 percentage points year-on-year in most provinces, according to analysis published by financial outlet Yicai, “compared with a 1 to 2 points jump in previous years”.
NEW ALUMINIUM TARGETS: In order to help meet the targets, regulators also issued renewable-energy goals for the aluminium industry in each province for the first time, China Power said. Reuters reported that Shandong, China’s biggest aluminium producer, is “set a target for renewables to account for 21% of the energy used to produce the metal”. The targets in Inner Mongolia and Yunnan province, which are also major aluminium producers, are set at 29% and 70%, respectively, added the newswire. China Power said that the “green electricity consumption” in the aluminium industry will be “calculated based on ‘green electricity certificates’ (GECs)” – a scheme that allows electricity generated by non-fossil fuels to be traded between producers and buyers. (See Carbon Brief’s China Briefing of 24 August 2023 for background on China’s GECs.)
‘GREEN ELECTRICITY’ TRADING: While announcing this year’s targets, the government also issued new rules for trading “green electricity” for the “medium to long term”, BJX News reported. The document says the trade via GECs should not be subject to price limits or set prices and, instead, work as a market-based system, unless “clearly stipulated by the state”. Trading should take place “mainly within provinces” with strong wind and solar resources, and can “gradually expand to other qualified renewable energy sources” when “conditions are ripe”, added the outlet.
CARBON MARKET INCLUSION: Despite an announcement in 2023 that GECs may be included in the carbon market in the future, China Power Enterprise Management magazine said that, currently, the GECs “have almost no impact on the national carbon market”, because GECs “is limited to low indirect emissions from electricity”. If energy-intensive industries are included in the carbon market, GECs can cover around 19% of carbon emissions in China, added the magazine.
No mention of reform in new power system plan
UPGRADING THE SYSTEM: BJX News reported that China has issued a plan to upgrade its power system to “promote the construction of a new type of power system” between now and 2027. The outlet said the new system should be “safe, stable, cost-effective, flexible” and support the addition of more “clean and low-carbon” resources. A “key effect” of the plan, according to the National Energy Administration, is to improve the transmission of renewable energy from the remote desert bases to cities “at a large scale”, added the outlet.
‘NEW-GENERATION’ OF COAL: Another BJX News article stated that the plan also proposes to “carry out experimental demonstrations of new-generation coal power” and explore a development path for coal “that is compatible with the development of a ‘new type’ power system”. Economic news outlet Jiemian also noted that the call to guarantee stable power supply “ranked at the top of the nine special actions outlined by the action plan”. (A new report by Ember, covered by Carbon Brief, stated that increasing investments in low-carbon energy by state-owned enterprises is pushing coal into “decline”.)
REFORM OMITTED: Reuters quoted Xuewan Chen, energy transition analyst at LSEG, saying the plan “focuses on building a more flexible power grid to better manage the [energy] transition”, but that the document did not mention “power market reform and the creation of a competitive power market to more effectively allocate resources”.
Solar industry woes continue
‘UPHEAVAL’: China’s domestic solar industry is in “upheaval” with wholesale prices falling by another 25% so far this year, after falling by almost half in 2023, the New York Times reported. It quoted Frank Haugwitz, a solar industry consultant, saying efforts by the Chinese government to rein in the industry’s expansion have been “too small to reduce China’s overcapacity”. Bloomberg said that an increasing number of Chinese solar manufacturers “are falling into restructuring or bankruptcy”, adding that “while bigger players like Longi have so far survived billions of yuan in losses by imposing production halts and layoffs, smaller companies have fewer ways to plug financial gaps”.
‘SEVERE OVERCAPACITY’: In a meeting of China’s Politburo at the end of July, state-run newspaper China Daily said, president Xi Jinping called for “strengthening industry self-regulation and preventing ‘involutional’ vicious competition”, adding that China should “strengthen the market mechanisms” to help with “inefficient production capacity”. The outlet did not report that any particular sectors were named during the meeting. Several days earlier, Bloomberg stated that Wang Bohua, head of the China Photovoltaic Industry Association, had called for “struggling solar manufacturers [to be pushed] to exit the market as soon as possible to reduce severe overcapacity”.
SOLAR SURGE: Elsewhere, BJX News reported that China added 134 gigawatts (GW) of new renewable capacity in the first six months of 2024, according to the National Energy Administration (NEA) – an increase of 24% year-on-year. It added that solar made up 102GW of the total. (Total US solar capacity stood at 139GW at the end of 2023.)
51.1%
The share of sales of “new energy vehicles” (NEVs) – which includes both battery electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids – in China in July, according to the China Passenger Car Association. The trade body added that NEV performance beat manufacturers’ expectations, which it attributed to a trade-in policy encouraging consumers to replace old cars.
Spotlight
China moves towards ‘dual-control of carbon’ with new work plan
China has released a plan that will set an absolute limit on its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions for the first time, shifting to “dual control” of total CO2 emissions and carbon intensity instead of total energy use and energy intensity.
The document, outlining a timeline for China to construct this new system for carbon “dual-control”, will be a key element of the country’s strategy to meet its climate goals.
In this issue, Carbon Brief assesses the document’s implications for China’s future emissions targets.
Switching to dual-control of carbon
In 2016, Beijing established a set of targets for energy intensity – its energy consumption per unit of GDP – and total energy consumption, in a system known as the “dual-control of energy”.
Since 2021, the central government has called for replacing the “dual-control of energy” with “dual-control of carbon”, which would be comprised of targets for both carbon intensity and total carbon emissions. China has only ever set targets for CO2 intensity, not for total CO2 emissions.
This shift began taking shape on 2 August when the State Council, China’s top administrative body, released a “work plan” outlining the first concrete design of the new system.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s primary economic planning body, told reporters at a press conference that the plan “establishes a clear direction” for developing renewable energy and “focusing on control of fossil-fuel energy consumption”.
Anticipating a 2030 peak?
According to the new plan, China aims to establish a “completed” statistics and accounting system for CO2 emissions by 2025. Components of this system include carbon footprint standards, a national database of greenhouse gas emission factors and other measurement and monitoring capabilities.
Between 2026 and 2030 – the period of the 15th five-year plan – China will replace current targets under “dual-control” of energy with a policy on “dual-control” of carbon that places “[carbon] intensity control as the main focus and control of the total amount [of carbon] as a supplement”.
This means that, under the new system, carbon intensity targets will remain binding and the cap on China’s total CO2 emissions will initially be a non-binding “supplement”.
In subsequent five-year plan periods, China will set a binding cap for total CO2 emissions, which will become the “key target” once China’s carbon peak is reached, with carbon intensity as a secondary target.
“The timeline here indicates policymakers still only aim to peak emissions by 2030, despite the clear likelihood that emissions will…peak much sooner,” Yao Zhe, global policy analyst for Greenpeace East Asia, said in a statement, adding that this shows China is still “underpromising”.
Li Shuo, director of the Asia Society Policy Institute’s China climate hub, told Carbon Brief that the ambiguity is intentional to allow policymakers “to further clarify when and how they want to make that switch [to an absolute cap]” after a peak is confirmed.
He added that policymakers’ “intrinsic inability” to predict the exact peaking timeline is the reason for setting two targets under the [new] dual-control system, as, once it happens, China “can just switch to the other [metric]”.
‘Rolling up its sleeves’
The shift from focusing on “dual-control of energy” to “dual-control of carbon” is a “change from process control to results-oriented management that will compel industries to adopt green technologies”, according to Qi Qin, China analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
China is falling short of its existing carbon intensity target, she said, making it important to “accelerate” its energy transition and clean energy buildout – priorities that are emphasised in the work plan.
Local governments are tasked with developing more specific targets, taking “local conditions” into account. Actions are also outlined for central government departments, industry associations and enterprises.
The central government subsequently released a related action plan to issue 70 national standards in areas including carbon footprints, CO2 emissions reduction, energy efficiency and carbon capture, utilisation and storage.
When formulating targets, the document urges policymakers to consider “economic development, energy security [and] normal production”, pointing to existing anxieties around maintaining stable access to power, which the country currently mostly relies on fossil fuels to provide.
Li told Carbon Brief:
“This is the Chinese government rolling up its sleeves and trying to make quite an important switch…Folks have been advocating for China to really reduce its emissions in absolute terms for almost two decades. This is the mechanics of how this will happen – them actually making this switch and trying to make sure this is done in the right way by, for example, disaggregating [targets] to the local level, getting the private sector involved and trying to build up the carbon accounting system from the bottom up.”
Implications for China’s NDC targets
As well as meeting domestic policy needs, the NDRC said, a dual-carbon control system is “conducive” to setting the country’s new international climate pledge (nationally determined contribution, NDC), and supports the image of China as “a responsible large country that is actively responding to global climate change”.
Yao said Greenpeace expects that China’s next NDC will include a carbon emission reduction goal for 2035.
Li told Carbon Brief that China’s international pledge will then drive domestic targets, due to “how the timeline works”. He added: “The NDC [target] for 2035 has to be communicated in 2025, [looking] 10 years into the future…The job of the five-year plans for the next two five-year periods [will then be] to align with that international pledge.”
Watch, read, listen
DRIVING FORCE: A report released today by Ember found that global wind capacity will double by 2030, with the majority of additions being installed in China.
SUPPORTING INNOVATION: Huang Kunming, governor of Guangdong province, wrote in the People’s Daily about the need to boost innovation to meet China’s development needs, including to “accelerate the green transformation of development”.
SUPPLY CHAINS: A Boston University Global Development Policy Center study found commercial ties between China and Latin American and Caribbean countries have broadened from solely minerals and agriculture to include the automotive, energy and transport sectors.
TACKLING METHANE: The California-China Climate Institute hosted a webinar on the state of agricultural methane emissions and bilateral cooperation between the US and China, building on a recently released report.
Captured
CO2 emissions in China fell by 1% in the second quarter of 2024, the first quarterly fall since the country re-opened from “zero-Covid” lockdowns, new analysis for Carbon Brief found. The reduction was driven by the surge in clean energy additions, which is pushing fossil fuel power into reverse – although the shift is being somewhat diluted by rapid energy demand growth in the coal-to-chemicals sector.
New science
The dominant warming season shifted from winter to spring in the arid region of Northwest China
npj Climate and Atmospheric Science
A new paper investigated the “seasonal asymmetry” in warming in the arid region of northwest China – which has experienced “significantly higher” warming than the global average, according to the paper. The authors used station and reanalysis data to investigate seasonal temperature changes in the region. They found that “the dominant season of temperature increase shifted from winter to spring”. The paper added that the main reason for warming in spring was a decrease in cloud cover, while a strengthening Siberian High was mainly responsible for driving winter cooling.
Carbon emissions from urban takeaway delivery in China
npj Urban Sustainability
Transport-related emissions from food deliveries in Chinese cities “surged” from 0.31m tonnes of CO2 equivalent (MtCO2e) in 2014 to 2.74MtCO2e in 2021, a new study found. The authors analysed the rise in emissions from food deliveries and explored possible policies to mitigate these emissions in the future. They estimated that by 2035, transport-related emissions from food deliveries will rise to 5.94MtCO2e. However, if motorcycles were replaced with electric bikes and traffic routes were optimised, “it is possible to mitigate such GHG emissions by 4.39-10.97MtCO2e between 2023 and 2035,” they said.
China Briefing is compiled by Wanyuan Song and Anika Patel. It is edited by Wanyuan Song and Dr Simon Evans. Please send tips and feedback to china@carbonbrief.org
The post China Briefing 8 August: Record extreme weather; First quarterly CO2 fall since Covid; ‘Dual control’ of carbon emissions appeared first on Carbon Brief.
Gabrielle Dreyfus is chief scientist at the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, Thomas Röckmann is a professor of atmospheric physics and chemistry at Utrecht University, and Lena Höglund Isaksson is a senior research scholar at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.
This March scientists and policy makers will gather near the site in Italy where methane was first identified 250 years ago to share the latest science on methane and the policy and technology steps needed to rapidly cut methane emissions. The timing is apt.
As new tools transform our understanding of methane emissions and their sources, the evidence they reveal points to a single conclusion: Human-caused methane emissions are still rising, and global action remains far too slow.
This is the central finding of the latest Global Methane Status Report. Four years into the Global Methane Pledge, which aims for a 30% cut in global emissions by 2030, the good news is that the pledge has increased mitigation ambition under national plans, which, if fully implemented, could result in the largest and most sustained decline in methane emissions since the Industrial Revolution.
The bad news is this is still short of the 30% target. The decisive question is whether governments will move quickly enough to turn that bend into the steep decline required to pump the brake on global warming.
What the data really show
Assessing progress requires comparing three benchmarks: the level of emissions today relative to 2020, the trajectory projected in 2021 before methane received significant policy focus, and the level required by 2030 to meet the pledge.
The latest data show that global methane emissions in 2025 are higher than in 2020 but not as high as previously expected. In 2021, emissions were projected to rise by about 9% between 2020 and 2030. Updated analysis places that increase closer to 5%. This change is driven by factors such as slower than expected growth in unconventional gas production between 2020 and 2024 and lower than expected waste emissions in several regions.
Gas flaring soars in Niger Delta post-Shell, afflicting communities
This updated trajectory still does not deliver the reductions required, but it does indicate that the curve is beginning to bend. More importantly, the commitments already outlined in countries’ Nationally Determined Contributions and Methane Action Plans would, if fully implemented, produce an 8% reduction in global methane emissions between 2020 and 2030. This would turn the current increase into a sustained decline. While still insufficient to reach the Global Methane Pledge target of a 30% cut, it would represent historical progress.
Solutions are known and ready
Scientific assessments consistently show that the technical potential to meet the pledge exists. The gap lies not in technology, but in implementation.
The energy sector accounts for approximately 70% of total technical methane reduction potential between 2020 and 2030. Proven measures include recovering associated petroleum gas in oil production, regular leak detection and repair across oil and gas supply chains, and installing ventilation air oxidation technologies in underground coal mines. Many of these options are low cost or profitable. Yet current commitments would achieve only one third of the maximum technically feasible reductions in this sector.
Recent COP hosts Brazil and Azerbaijan linked to “super-emitting” methane plumes
Agriculture and waste also provide opportunities. Rice emissions can be reduced through improved water management, low-emission hybrids and soil amendments. While innovations in technology and practices hold promise in the longer term, near-term potential in livestock is more constrained and trends in global diets may counteract gains.
Waste sector emissions had been expected to increase more rapidly, but improvements in waste management in several regions over the past two decades have moderated this rise. Long-term mitigation in this sector requires immediate investment in improved landfills and circular waste systems, as emissions from waste already deposited will persist in the short term.
New measurement tools
Methane monitoring capacity has expanded significantly. Satellite-based systems can now identify methane super-emitters. Ground-based sensors are becoming more accessible and can provide real-time data. These developments improve national inventories and can strengthen accountability.
However, policy action does not need to wait for perfect measurement. Current scientific understanding of source magnitudes and mitigation effectiveness is sufficient to achieve a 30% reduction between 2020 and 2030. Many of the largest reductions in oil, gas and coal can be delivered through binding technology standards that do not require high precision quantification of emissions.
The decisive years ahead
The next 2 years will be critical for determining whether existing commitments translate into emissions reductions consistent with the Global Methane Pledge.
Governments should prioritise adoption of an effective international methane performance standard for oil and gas, including through the EU Methane Regulation, and expand the reach of such standards through voluntary buyers’ clubs. National and regional authorities should introduce binding technology standards for oil, gas and coal to ensure that voluntary agreements are backed by legal requirements.
One approach to promoting better progress on methane is to develop a binding methane agreement, starting with the oil and gas sector, as suggested by Barbados’ PM Mia Mottley and other leaders. Countries must also address the deeper challenge of political and economic dependence on fossil fuels, which continues to slow progress. Without a dual strategy of reducing methane and deep decarbonisation, it will not be possible to meet the Paris Agreement objectives.
Mottley’s “legally binding” methane pact faces barriers, but smaller steps possible
The next four years will determine whether available technologies, scientific evidence and political leadership align to deliver a rapid transition toward near-zero methane energy systems, holistic and equity-based lower emission agricultural systems and circular waste management strategies that eliminate methane release. These years will also determine whether the world captures the near-term climate benefits of methane abatement or locks in higher long-term costs and risks.
The Global Methane Status Report shows that the world is beginning to change course. Delivering the sharper downward trajectory now required is a test of political will. As scientists, we have laid out the evidence. Leaders must now act on it.
The post Curbing methane is the fastest way to slow warming – but we’re off the pace appeared first on Climate Home News.
Curbing methane is the fastest way to slow warming – but we’re off the pace
The leaders and climate ministers of governments around the world will be invited to meetings on the Pacific islands of Fiji, Palau and Tuvalu in the months leading up to the COP31 climate summit in November.
Under a deal struck between Pacific nations, Fiji will host the official annual pre-COP meeting, at which climate ministers and negotiators discuss contentious issues with the COP Presidency to help make the climate summit smoother.
This pre-COP, expected to be held in early October, will include a “special leaders’ component” hosted in neighbouring Tuvalu – 2.5-hour flight north – according to a statement issued by the Australian COP31 President of Negotiations Chris Bowen on LinkedIn on Thursday.
Bowen said this “will bring a global focus to the most pressing challenges facing our region and support investment in solutions which are fit for purpose for our region.” Australia will provide operational and logistical support for the event, he said.
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Like many Pacific island nations, Tuvalu, which is home to around 10,000 people, is threatened by rising sea levels, as salt water and waves damage homes, water supplies, farms and infrastructure.
Dozens of heads of state and government usually attend COP summits, but only a handful take part in pre-COP meetings. COP31 will be held in the Turkish city of Antalya in November, after an unusual compromise deal struck between Australia and Türkiye.
In addition, Pacific country Palau will host a climate event as part of the annual Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) – which convenes 18 Pacific nations – in August.
Palau’s President Surangel Whipps Jr told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that this meeting would be a “launching board” to build momentum for COP31 and would draw new commitments from other countries to help Pacific nations cut emissions and adapt to climate change.
“At the PIF our priorities are going to be 100 per cent renewables, the ocean-climate nexus and … accelerating investments that build resilience from climate change,” he told ABC.
The post World leaders invited to see Pacific climate destruction before COP31 appeared first on Climate Home News.
World leaders invited to see Pacific climate destruction before COP31
Alejandro Álvarez Iragorry is a Venezuelan ecologist and coordinator of Clima 21, an environmental NGO. Cat Rainsford is a transition minerals investigator for Global Witness and former Venezuela analyst for a Latin American think tank.
In 1975, former Venezuelan oil minister Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonzo gave a now infamous warning.
“Oil will bring us ruin,” he declared. “It is the devil’s excrement. We are drowning in the devil’s excrement.”
At the time, his words seemed excessively gloomy to many Venezuelans. The country was in a period of rapid modernisation, fuelled by its booming oil economy. Caracas was a thriving cultural hotspot. Everything seemed good. But history proved Pérez right.
Over the following decades, Venezuela’s oil dependence came to seem like a curse. After the 1980s oil price crash, political turmoil paved the way for the election of populist Hugo Chávez, who built a socialist state on oil money, only for falling prices and corruption to drive it into ruin.
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By 2025, poverty and growing repression under Chávez’s successor Nicolás Maduro had forced nearly 8 million Venezuelans to leave the country.
Venezuela is now at a crossroads. Since the US abducted Maduro on January 3 and seized control of the country’s oil revenues in a nakedly imperial act, all attention has been on getting the country’s dilapidated oil infrastructure pumping again.
But Venezuelans deserve more than plunder and fighting over a planet-wrecking resource that has fostered chronic instability and dispossession. Right now, 80% of Venezuelans live below the poverty line. Venezuelans are desperate for jobs, income and change.
Real change, though, won’t come through more oil dependency or profiteering by foreign elites. Instead, it is renewable energy that offers a pathway forward, towards sovereignty, stability and peace.
Guri Dam and Venezuela’s hydropower decline
Venezuela boasts some of the strongest potential for renewable energy generation in the region. Two-thirds of the country’s own electricity comes from hydropower, mostly from the massive Guri Dam in the southern state of Bolívar. This is one of the largest dams in Latin America with a capacity of over 10 gigawatts, even providing power to parts of Colombia and Brazil.
Guri has become another symbol of Venezuela’s mismanagement. Lack of diversification caused over-reliance on Guri for domestic power, making the system vulnerable to droughts. Poor maintenance reduced Guri’s capacity and planned supporting projects such as the Tocoma Dam were bled dry by corruption. The country was left plagued by blackouts and increasingly turned to dirty thermoelectric plants and petrol generators for power.
Today, industry analysis suggests that Venezuela is producing at about 30% of its hydropower capacity. Rehabilitating this neglected infrastructure could re-establish clean power as the backbone of domestic industry, while the country’s abundant river system offers numerous opportunities for smaller, sustainable hydro projects that promote rural electrification.
Venezuela also has huge, untapped promise in wind power that could provide vital diversification from hydropower. The coastal states of Zulia and Falcón boast wind speeds in the ideal range for electricity generation, with potential to add up to 12 gigawatts to the grid. Yet planned projects in both states have stalled, leaving abandoned turbines rusting in fields and millions of dollars unaccounted for.
Solar power is more neglected. One announced solar plant on the island of Los Roques remains non-functional a decade later, and a Chávez-era programme to supply solar panels to rural households ground to a halt when oil prices fell. Yet nearly a fifth of the country receives levels of solar radiation that rival leading regions such as northern Chile.
Developing Venezuela’s renewables potential would be a massive undertaking. Investment would be needed, local concerns around a just and equitable transition would have to be navigated and infrastructure development carefully managed.
Rebuilding Venezuela with a climate-driven energy transition
A shift in political vision would be needed to ensure that Venezuela’s renewable energy was not used to simply free up more oil for export, as in the past, but to power a diversified domestic economy free from oil-driven cycles of boom and bust.
Ultimately, these decisions must be taken by democratically elected leaders. But to date, no timeline for elections has been set, and Venezuela’s future hangs in the balance. Supporting the country to make this shift is in all of our interests.
What’s clear is that Venezuela’s energy future should not lie in oil. Fossil fuel majors have not leapt to commit the estimated $100 billion needed to revitalise the sector, with ExxonMobil declaring Venezuela “uninvestable”. The issues are not only political. Venezuela’s heavy, sour crude is expensive to refine, making it dubious whether many projects would reach break-even margins.
Behind it all looms the spectre of climate change. The world must urgently move away from fossil fuels. Beyond environmental concerns, it’s simply good economics.
Recent analysis by the International Renewable Energy Agency finds that 91% of new renewable energy projects are now cheaper than their fossil fuel alternatives. China, the world’s leading oil buyer, is among the most rapid adopters.
Tethering Venezuela’s future to an outdated commodity leaves the country in a lose-lose situation. Either oil demand drops and Venezuela is left with nothing. Or climate change runs rampant, devastating vulnerable communities with coastal loss, flooding, fires and heatwaves. Meanwhile, Venezuela remains locked in the same destructive economic swings that once led to dictatorship and mass emigration. There is another way.
Venezuelans rightfully demand a political transition, with their own chosen leaders. But to ensure this transition is lasting and stable, Venezuela needs more – it needs an energy transition.
The post There is hope for Venezuela’s future – and it isn’t based on oil appeared first on Climate Home News.
There is hope for Venezuela’s future – and it isn’t based on oil
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